Oil Spill and its affect on Hurricanes

[rcskidoo]

John,

Who knows if this is a stupid question or if pertains to the up coming hurricane season. Will the oil spill in the Gulf affect developing hurricanes at all? I also read that BP plans on burning roughly 400,000 gallons of oil off the water a day. Will this heat up the atmosphere and water at intesify a developing hurricane or will it hurt it? Just a thought I had in my head and didn't know if you had any idea. Thanks for your time.

RC

 

[michaeladams]

it will just make landfall sooner as there is more viscosity on top of the water.

 

[dofo1]

Maybe we are on to something

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7726-oil-on-troubled-waters-may-stop-hurricanes.html

 

[jd]

The oil would probably have the biggest influence by weakening any tropical system. These storms get their energy from the warm ocean waters that are evaporated into the atmosphere and then the latent heat is given off as the water vapor condenses to form the clouds of the storm. The oil will slow that evaporation and thus weaken the storm.

The heat given off by burning the oil would really be inconsequential compared to the latent heat given off during condensation- even with the smallest of storms.

-John