Can Yucatan change a storm's direction?

[Portastorm]

Sorry if this question has been posed in another thread, but is there some kind of historical analog for how tropical systems interact with the Yucatan Peninsula in terms of movement, or is that irrelevant?

[JTD]

Well this doesn't relate to Emily but I do know that storms that go off the Yucatan deep into the bay of Campeche rarely travel north as it takes really strong steering currents to get storms out of that area.

This doesn't relate to Emily though.

[dougjp]

If there is any information about interaction with land, I'd love to read it.

[Innotech]

well I do remember Hurricane idsidore fell apart and went north up around where I live, and Cindy went off east of that after lcipping hte Ycuatan. so it seems to bend hte tracks of weaker storms. UInfortunately, Emily isnt a weaker storm.

[StormsAhead]

Cindy was destroyed by the Yucatan, and the center reformed to the north, as opposed to continuing northwest, but that was a very weak system. Isidore in 2002 was not a storm like this, because it was moving to the NORTH of the Yucatan and turned into it because the winds over land became weaker than the winds over water. A close track to Emily would be Gilbert, which just took the straightest track across everything in its path, and didn't change its course at all.

Emily is almost comparable to Gilbert in strength, but it is far smaller, so it may not just plow through all land in its path. The Yucatan may have some effect on Emily's motion, but a bigger factor will probably be the weakness in the ridge IMO.

[Brent]

Isidore was strange. I still remember sitting in front of the computer and watching it parallel the northern coast... before going inland and sitting over Progreso/Merida for 36 hours. Totally unexpected.