CharlestonDoc wrote:Beach erosion is definitely a real issue. We actually had a fair amount of beach damage and erosion just from the bit of Irene that swiped us here in Charleston, SC.
Why is it a "recurve" rather than just a curve? I've been wondering this for years. When did it curve the first time? Is it that it curves north and then northeast?
Recurve indicates a bend back towards the origination point. In this case, any storm that curves back towards it's developed longitude in this case is said to have recurved. In the N. Hemisphere in the atlantic ocean that often means that for a storm to have recurved, it means it has to have gone East instead of West. That also means technically storms like Lenny or Vince which began moving east after developing did not recurve in it's true definition.
The bulk of storms all at some point recurve due to the fact that they detach from the easterly trade winds and head north due to the Coriolis effect and meet up with the mid-latitude westerlies. So, a storm develops in say the MDR for the atlantic at 10N 35W, then curves towards the north and ends up 20N 50W, then curves again this time NE-ENE-E after hitting the westerlies and ends up say at 40N and 35W at the end of a track. That motion is known as the recurve since it came back towards it original starting Longitude.
