Weather Tidbits: Hurricane Quadrant Risks
This edition of Weather Tidbits will be discussing the various risks that exist within the different quadrants of a hurricane. The type of risks and their severity are dependent on the hurricane’s direction of movement along with its counterclockwise circulation. We will use the hurricane moving in a northerly direction as a reference, since that is the general direction a hurricane will take when near the United States.
The right front quadrant features the top severity of all risk factors. This is where the greatest wind, storm surge, and flooding threat resides, as well as the greatest tornado threat. This is because of the circulation and movement of the hurricane working together to increase relative wind speed for a location in that quadrant, also aiding to push water against land and raising the storm surge threat. This is also where the greatest veering of wind direction with height is. The right rear quadrant has a lower tornado threat and a slightly lower wind, surge, and flooding threat. The left front quadrant has a similar tornado and wind threat to the right rear quadrant, but a vastly lower surge and flooding threat. The left rear quadrant has a very low surge threat along with the lowest wind and tornado threat.