Lunar Cycle Turns Hurricanes Into Beasts

[Ptarmigan]

Lunar Cycle Turns Hurricanes Into Beasts
Michael Reilly, Discovery News

March 5, 2009 -- Werewolves aren't the only terrors that follow the lunar cycle; hurricanes strengthen more often under a new moon than at any other time, according to a new study.

The moon's spooky influence on Earth and its denizens is legendary, and rightly so. From fertility to suicide, most phenomena attributed to Luna are almost exclusively superstition.

But Peter Yaukey of the University of New Orleans has found what he thinks is real evidence that the phases of moon drive hurricane behavior. Storms that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean between 1950 and 2007 were more likely to form right after the new moon. They also intensified 49 percent more often after a new moon than at any other time in the 29.5-day lunar cycle.

Link

==============================

If there is a New Moon, it means hurricanes are more likely to be intense.

[JonathanBelles]

Very interesting. Most things I notice get worse during the full moon.

[x-y-no]

Well that would be an interesting correlation if it turns out to be real.

[MGC]

A full moon does cause more earthquakes.....so who knows....MGC

[RL3AO]

I don't get it. He says a new moon might help pull cosmic dust into the earths atmophere. Which means this dust would have to be pulled down through three layers of atmophere to get to the troposhere. First, why would the moon pull the dust towards Earth instead of away from earth? Why would a new moon have anything to do with it? Each part of the Earth faces the moon at some point everyday, you just can't see it sometimes because of sunlight. If anything, the moon and sun lining up (which happens during a new moon) would make you think they would pull cosmic dust away from Earth's atmosphere?

[RL3AO]

"There are a range of possibilities. Just as the moon pulls on Earth's oceans and creates the tides, it also tugs on the air above it. Lunar atmospheric tides are thought to be weak, but could create favorable conditions for storms to strengthen."


What does a new moon have to do with that? That happens every single day when that part of the earth is facing the moon (and I think the side facing away from the moon as well...so twice a day). I don't get what a new moon has anything to do with these "atmospheric tides".

[DanKellFla]

Maybe this is why hurricanes were named after women for so long.

[Derek Ortt]

correlation does not equal causation

also, correlations can break down quickly, just like the QBO correlation did