Why do you never hear of hurricane's in the Pacific?

Question

I live on the east cost (Virginia) and was just watching the weather. I realized that every year I hear about named tropical storms and hurricane's in the Atlantic, but I've never heard of one in the Pacific. Why?

Answer 1

You must have not been looking too closely, because hurricanes do happen in the Pacific. There are at least two there right now.

Eastern Pacific hurricanes get less attention because they generally form off the coast of Mexico and then move away from the North American continent.

I'm sure you've noticed that hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic tend to move east to west, but once they edge north into subtropical waters, they curve sharply to the northeast. Pacific hurricanes can do this as well, but the waters of the subtropical Pacific are cooler than those of the subtropical Atlantic. Hurricanes fizzle if they should happen to make the curve near the Mexican coast. Because of this, only one weak hurricane has ever hit San Diego.

The same types of storms can occur in the western Pacific, but they are called typhoons there. They routinely cause major damage to China and Japan.

Answer 2

I don't know.  They definitely do occur.  You can find the latest data here, for the eastern tropical north Pacific, as well as the north Atlantic:  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml?epac

Answer 3

There are three reasons you dont hear much about them.

1) they are called typhoons instead of hurricanes.

2) the gulf of mexico plays a huge role in getting the energy up, and there is no analogue in the pacific

3) they dont hit the US.

Answer 4

I believe in the Pacific, they aren't called hurricanes, but cyclones. There was a semi-recent one in Burma. Google 'Cyclone Nargis'.

Answer 5

I believe that ocean currents play a role. Atlantic ones in N. America tend to rotate c-clock. pushing them either into the gulf or northwestward. While Atlantic currents travel clockwise from Alaska south then eastward to the Orient, where they call them typhoons.

Answer 6

Hurricanes happen in the Pacific too...just not as frequent.   The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean and therefore hard to warm up, unlike the Atlantic and especially the Gulf of Mexico.  That's why you see when a tropical depression goes into the Gulf it almost everytime will turn into a Tropical Storm and Hurricane....unless it's track goes right over a large piece of land which makes it lose it's power.  The warm water is what fuels it.  Hope this helps.