Hurricane Erin is over 500 miles away from South Florida as of Wednesday afternoon, but the extreme size of the storm is still impacting the wind direction locally, and spreading wildfire smoke across the area.
But how?
Understanding how wind moves around a hurricane
Wind naturally flows counterclockwise around a low-pressure system.
With that in mind, South Florida has been on the west side of the storm for the last few days. That means the wind has been coming from the northeast and onto the shore.
So, thanks to that onshore wind, the smoke was being pushed further into the Everglades and away from where people live.
NBC6
NBC6 Wind naturally flows counterclockwise around a low-pressure system. So on Wednesday, South Florida will have northwest winds (as in, winds that come from the northwest) because of how they naturally wrap around a storm like Erin.
How are the winds moving now?
On Wednesday, South Florida finds itself in the far southwest quadrant of the storm. That means our area will have northwest winds (as in, winds that come from the northwest) because of how they naturally wrap around a storm like Erin.
That westerly wind component is currently pushing smoke east and into more populated areas, across a large swath of South Florida, at a sustained speed of approximately 10 to 15 mph.
This is all due to the outer flow of Erin.
How long will our winds be affected by Erin?
Our winds will be affected until the massive system moves even farther away.
Wednesday night, the winds will weaken, and this is when our air quality alerts go into effect for the stagnant nature of the breeze.
Once the breeze picks back up, depending on where it’s coming from, the smoke will all move downstream.
What about the smoke?
The forecast for Thursday has the wind shifting to the southwest, which means the smoke will move to the north and east.
South Florida could still see smoke until rain washes it out of the atmosphere (and assists in the firefight). That is also forecast for Thursday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
