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Binary Hurricanes are Here - Weird Weather Watch - the Fujiwhara Effect

3,063 views · Published 25 July 2017 · 4:21 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: thornews · 2017 · Science & Technology

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How weird is the weather? We now have Binary Hurricanes or Binary Cyclones. Strange Days, indeed.

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articles on the fujiwara effect

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/western-eastern-pacific-hilary-irwin-noru-kulap-fujiwhara-july2017

Eastern Pacific's Hurricanes Hilary, Irwin to Undergo Weird Fujiwhara Effect Generating High Surf in Southern California

A bizarre, circular dance of tropical cyclones known as the Fujiwhara effect will happen not just in the western Pacific, but also later this week in the eastern Pacific Basin, generating high surf along the Southern California coast.

Right now, there's a trio of named storms in the eastern Pacific Ocean, west of Mexico. The easternmost pair, Hurricanes Hilary and Irwin, will continue moving toward the west-northwest through Wednesday.

Current Infrared Satellite Image
The highest cloud tops, corresponding to the most vigorous convection, are shown in the dark red and pink colors. Clustering, deep convection is a sign of a developing tropical cyclone.
Hilary and Irwin show draw sufficiently close by Thursday that a phenomenon meteorologists call the Fujiwhara effect kicks in.

Named after a Japanese researcher who discovered this in experiments with water in the early 1920s, the Fujiwhara effect details how two tropical cyclones 800 to 900 miles apart rotate counter-clockwise about one another. Think of the teacup ride at Disney or the Tilt-a-Whirl at your local county fair, but with tropical systems instead.

In this case, Irwin, the westernmost storm of the pair, will eventually get pulled briefly east, then north and ingested by the circulation of Hilary this weekend, according to the latest forecast guidance.

Typically, the stronger storm will dominate the weaker, either fizzling it or merging with it altogether. In this case, Hilary, expected to be the more intense hurricane, will likely be the survivor, with Irwin rotating about it like a planet's moon, then fizzling.

This entire process from capturing Irwin to orbiting Hilary's east and north sides, to ingesting it could last 4 to 5 days total. 

While neither named storm will impact land directly, there may be two primary indirect impacts later this week into the weekend:

High surf/rip currents: Higher swells may reach the Southern California coast as soon as late Thursday or Friday, continuing into the weekend. Beach erosion and coastal flooding are possible, particularly on south-facing beaches, according to the National Weather Service.
Moisture yields more thunderstorms? This is more uncertain, but increased mid-level moisture may be pumped into the Southwest, leading to more thunderstorms not just in the typical Desert Southwest monsoon areas, but also in parts of California.

Noru is now turning northward, and will soon cross its previous path from last week completing an oval-shaped loop.

Meanwhile, there's increasingly little left of Kulap, experiencing shear from Noru and dry air, to boot. Each is revolving about a point between them, the daisy-wheel motion mentioned earlier.

Kulap, or what's left of it, may continue revolving toward the west, then south, then back east again before it becomes unrecognizable by Wednesday or Thursday.

Noru, meanwhile, may loaf and lollygag near Iwo Jima well into next week, given the lack of strong steering winds in the northwest Pacific. 

We still can't rule out an eventual land impact in Japan, but that may not come until late next week. In the meantime, Noru may intensify, and is likely to at least generate large swells that will reach the Japanese Pacific coast and persist into next week.

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