Weather Tidbits: Relationship Between Hurricanes & Upwelling

We’ll be discussing how hurricanes can upwell water and thus cool the sea surface temperatures in this edition of Weather Tidbits. Hurricanes churn up the waters in a big way, especially if the hurricane is a high-end one. As the hurricane spins, the power of the wind and lowering pressure rotates the water as well along with it. Some of the water will tend to deflect outward while rotating due to the coriolis force. The deflection and divergence would create empty space that needs to be filled, at least in theory. However, fluid dynamics do not allow this. Thus, colder water deeper in the ocean flows upward to fill what would otherwise be the empty space. Thus, the sea surface temperatures cools. This is why it is common for strong hurricanes to leave behind a path of cooler sea surface temperatures.