I just read an article about hurricanes encountering the oil spill

[snorkel]

Key points: toxic oil/dispersant mixture gets dumped in high concentration miles inland where there's little rainfall, faraway beaches get covered in oil, the huge underwater plumes get churned up and flung everywhere

The whole thing really brings dystopian images of a destroyed Earth into perspective  

[Socks]

i read the same article. interestingly, it may have the opposite effect on oil contamination. the crude surely affects the thermal properties of the Gulf, perhaps diffusing a hurricane to some extent.

[the shortest route to the sea]

i read the same article. interestingly, it may have the opposite effect on oil contamination. the crude surely affects the thermal properties of the Gulf, perhaps diffusing a hurricane to some extent.

Even though there's less "food" for the hurricane, from evaporated ocean water, wouldn't the warm/cold fronts meeting start a strong hurricane up just the same?

[Socks]

Even though there's less "food" for the hurricane, from evaporated ocean water, wouldn't the warm/cold fronts meeting start a strong hurricane up just the same?

hurricanes typically progress from select atmospheric depressions into tropical storms and gradually build up to the monstrous proportion they can achieve, given suitable and ideal environmental conditions. for a disastrous hurricane to suddenly form at the precipice of the oil sheath would be unlikely, even if it was theoretically possible.

[Daddy]

At least there wasn't a lot of regulation on BP because that would have been awful.


also, the effect really depends on if the hurricane manages to form. if it does, it will push oil more inland than just washing up.

[rdl]

i really want to see a flamicane, but according to i think cnn, there's a small chance of the hurricane picking up any oil. and it would probably take hundreds of lightning bolts to set the hurricane on fire.

so

[snorkel]

i really want to see a flamicane, but according to i think cnn, there's a small chance of the hurricane picking up any oil. and it would probably take hundreds of lightning bolts to set the hurricane on fire.

so

enough dynamite will set anything on fire

cnn is not to be trusted

[Daddy]

i really want to see a flamicane, but according to i think cnn, there's a small chance of the hurricane picking up any oil. and it would probably take hundreds of lightning bolts to set the hurricane on fire.

so

The reason for this is because the only way for the oil to get into the hurricane is either:

a.) evaporating,which would require temperatures a lot higher than water needs
b.) being picked up by the hurricane but this would be rather low level and it would be dropped soon after making landfall.


If it does do A, there is still a major reason why igniting it won't be extremely likely.  The oxygen concentration at that altitude won't sustain a fire for long, so any small sparks will quickly choke.

[Selkie]

I feel like, assuming they stop the leak before the hurricanes start, the oil being dispersed and churned around by the hurricanes would in a way help clean the spill.

Can't it in a way help to spread it out throughout the 65 something trillion gallons of water in the Gulf so it sort of vanishes?

Then again, this still says nothing about the shore, which would still be fucked.

[Socks]

It could spread and dilute the oil, even reverse its encroachment toward shore, depending on the currents the storms produce and their track. There was an even bigger spill in the Gulf (140 million gallons!), by the Ixtoc 1 rig during the summer of '79 off the Yucatan. Worst case scenario is that a hurricane brings oil to other parts what would otherwise not have been affected before, and it rains oil for tens, maybe hundreds of miles inland, with black crude swells and surges trenching everything in their path. Not to mention the suspension and delay in the containment activities. Still, I would like to think a huge hurricane heading toward civilization would be of major concern, oil or not.

[Daddy]

It could spread and dilute the oil, even reverse its encroachment toward shore, depending on the currents the storms produce and their track. There was an even bigger spill in the Gulf (140 million gallons!), by the Ixtoc 1 rig during the summer of '79 off the Yucatan. Worst case scenario is that a hurricane brings oil to other parts what would otherwise not have been affected before, and it rains oil for tens, maybe hundreds of miles inland, with black crude swells and surges trenching everything in their path. Not to mention the suspension and delay in the containment activities. Still, I would like to think a huge hurricane heading toward civilization would be of major concern, oil or not.

Ixtoc also was over a period of 9 months while Deepwater has been just over a month. Given time, (hopefully not), it will end up being larger.