Question

Why do storms move from the wast coast of america to the east coast?

Answer 1

             In the U.S, the Jet stream is what pushes fronts across the nation. Since the Jet stream usually runs from west to east, that is why weather fronts travel in that direction. But, sometimes the jet streat does not run west to east. Right now, on the east coast, it is running from south to north, and that is why the northern portions of the east coast are being hit with a lot of rain since a weather front is running from south to north. Also, in some cases, you can get a backboor front, which means it is running from east to west. But, for the most part, fronts will travel from west to east in the U.S.

With hurricanes, it depends on where it forms. Hurricanes that started near the Cape Verde Islands will travel from east to west because of the winds coming off the west coast of Africa, and in that part of the world, trade winds tend to travel from east to west. In the gulf of mexico, winds tend to blow from south to north, but if a hurricane forms there, it can go in any direction, so that is why all the gulf states can get hit by a hurricane at anytime when one forms or goes into the gulf of mexico. Because they start in the tropics where the prevailing winds are out of the east. The basic flow of winds in the North Atlantic in hurricane season is clockwise. So that's why the East Coast regularly gets pasted by hurricanes--the weather systems are set up like an automatic pitching machine