With NOAA’s recent projection of an “Above Average” hurricane season, I’ve received a few emails here in the weather center from viewers asking about how a hurricane would interact withthe oil spill.  I was able to get my hands on this flyer from NOAA-the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

The flyer addresses some great questions, such as: “What will happen to a hurricane that runs through this oil slick?”  The general consensus is that a hurricane would be minimally impacted by the slick due to the fact that most oil slicks are remarkably smaller in size than your typical hurricane (see the breakdown of different hurricane strengths by clicking here which can span 200-300 miles.  Also, as the oil spreads out and away from the leak site, it generally tends to become patchy as opposed to one big solid slick of oil.  This would generally limit the impacts of the slick on the hurricane.

One of the other big questions this flyer address: “What will the hurricane do to the oil slick in the Gulf?”  This is where hard science starts to blend with speculation.  At a very local level, the high winds associated with a tropical system would tend to “mix up” the oil and the water, helping to accelerate the natural biodegradation process.  Also of note, if a hurricane passes to the west of an oil spill, it could (theoretically), push the oil farther inland courtesy of a hurricane’s winds rotating in a counter-clockwise fashion.  On the very same note, if a hurricane passes east of an oil spill, it could (again, theoretically) pull that oil slick farther out to sea. 

While we have experienced oil slicks in conjunction with hurricanes in the past, the data is rather-for lack of a better term-sketchy.  In the past, most of these oil slicks have been caused by the hurricane, rather than present before the hurricane arrived.  Therefore, it’s a bit difficult to accurately compare those events to the current Gulf spill.  For example, hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005) produced oil spills.  With those storms, the oil became very widely dispersed. 

As of this writing, the National Hurricane Center is watching an area of low pressure in the southeastern Gulf that has a 40% chance of tropical development.  You can bet the folks working to clean up the Deep Horizon spill will be watching that “area of interest” very closely not only over the course of the next few days, but right through the end of this hurricane season.