'The "dirty side" of a hurricane, explained' by Vox

Today's evergreen post may not be all that fresh next month because the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season will officially end on November 30. The key word is officially; storms have formed during December, such as Zeta in 2005, which persisted into January 2006, so it could still be topical in December. Besides, the 2025 season will begin on June 1st and this post will definitely be topical then.

With that out of the way, watch The "dirty side" of a hurricane, explained by Vox.

Why the right side of a tropical cyclone is the most dangerous.
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The “dirty side” of a hurricane refers to the part of the storm that usually brings the highest impacts: the greatest winds, greatest tornado risk, and greatest storm surge and flooding. In the case of Atlantic hurricanes, which rotate counterclockwise, the “dirty side” is on the right — where the winds are moving in the same direction as the storm, combining their speeds. This is why the greatest risk of storm surge during a hurricane is at the center of the storm, in the “eyewall,” and to the right of it, where the forward-moving winds push water onto shore.

Because the center of the storm is the strongest, forecasters tend to focus on tracking it, using a popular tool called the “forecast cone,” which shows the potential path of the center of a storm, but leaves out the wider impact areas. So many viewers of hurricane forecasts don’t realize a storm’s impacts reach far beyond the cone, and in particular on the right-hand side of the storm.

Vox did a good job of explaining how and why Helene and Milton caused the most damage on the right side of the eye and particularly how Helene hit western North Carolina as hard as it did; the Appalachians wrung even more moisture as the storm moved up the mountains. That's not usually a consideration for hurricanes in the U.S. because they hit low-lying areas.

So far, this season's 18 named storms, including 11 hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes, have borne out NOAA's 'Most Aggressive Hurricane Season Forecast On Record' for 2024, which predicted 17–25 named storms, 8–13 hurricanes, and 4–7 major hurricanes. I might revisit this and other forecasts next month. Stay tuned.