Hurricanes / super storms?

Question

What would happen if two hurricanes every collided? I mean i don't see where it is possible but some one in my class said it would create a super storm kind of like the one in "The Perfect Storm" but i thought that movie was just out of some ones imagination.

Answer 1

No, that would not happen.  What would happen, and has happened before, is that as they got close, one would weaken the other, due to the fact that a hurricane needs to have a well established outflow at it's top in order to exhaust the air that is converging and rising from below.  Two systems getting too close to each other would restrict this outflow and weaken one or both of them.

Some artistic license was taken in the movie "Perfect Storm" in that in reality, hurricane Grace had very little to do with the explosive strengthening of that superstorm.  Hurricane Grace was actually caught up in the outer circulation of the strengthening storm and was basically torn apart out there.