STORM2K

How come hurricanes get larger and move faster when they go past the Carolinas? I notice this a lot with hurricanes heading towards the New York area and New England.

As one gets toward that latitude, the influence from midlatitude systems become stronger. These midlatitude cyclones often contain strong jet stream winds which steer the storms faster, and also shear the storms so that the size of the storm increases.

wxmann_91 wrote:As one gets toward that latitude, the influence from midlatitude systems become stronger. These midlatitude cyclones often contain strong jet stream winds which steer the storms faster, and also shear the storms so that the size of the storm increases.

Interesting. It's rather weird because hurricanes usually have lower pressure than those midlatitude cyclones. The midlatitude cyclones are larger than hurricanes.

Extratropical transition, combined with merging energy transfer between the TC and high-latitude westerlies, also helps to contribute to the expanding size of hurricanes further north, depending on the synoptics at work.