Land storms vs. hurricanes?

Question

that storms on land move west to east but hurricanes go east to west????? or wherever they like to go.

Answer 1

The direction in which a depression moves has nothing to do with the surface. What happens is this: We usually divide depressions in two zones; the tropical ones and the frontal ones.

tropical depressions are simply from the convective effect of what is the warmest part of the earth: the tropical regions.

Frontal depressions are found along the front that exists in both hemisphere between the cold polar air and the temperate one.

Because of the earth rotation and the jet streams, frontal depressions tend to move eastward. That is probably what you call 'land storms' over the US midlands.

Tropical depressions tend to move with the main air circulation. Over the southern part of the north Atlantic, the trade winds blow to the west and the ocean current, the Gulf stream does to.

Because of the Coriolis effect, any large system in the northern hemisphere is deviated to the right. This is how hurricanes tend to move toward the West Indies, Florida, then take often a more northward direction (veering to the right!) and end up in Northern Europe.

Please note that a depression, a low, a convection, a storm, a cyclone, a hurricane, a typhoon etc. are all different names for the same thing: A place where air rises due to heat or terrain. Different names are only used for different strength and different locations.

Answer 2

Michel used a lot of big words, but he basically got it right. Storms move any ANY direction. It depends mostly on the winds and where they are coming from and the season it is as well. Whether or not its on land has nothing to do with he direction of storm movement. Hurricanes usually move east to west because they come from the western coast of Africa and start spawning from there. Once out in the ocean they either develop or fail. If they develop to hurricanes they just go all out in the ocean and are then at the mercy of the fronts coming out of the northern states. Fronts can push the hurricanes in many directions.