What is a Nor'easter?

Nor'easters are storm systems that frequently occur in the eastern United States during winter. In this episode, Marshall explains where Nor'easters get their name, how they work and why some Nor'easters are more powerful than others.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com
where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question,
what is a northeaster? Nor Easter's can occur in the
eastern United States anytime between October and April, when moisture

(00:22):
and cold air are plentiful. They're known for dumping heavy
amounts of rain and snow, producing hurricane force winds and
creating high surfs that cause severe beach erosion and coastal flooding. Obviously,
this looks a lot like a hurricane, so when a
big nor Easter comes through, it's gonna make the news.
A nor easter is named for the winds that blow

(00:44):
in from the northeast and drive the storm up the
East coast along the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is
a band of warm water that lies off the Atlantic
coast of the United States. There are two main components
to a northeaster. First, there's the Gulf Stream low pressure system.
These systems generate off the coast of Florida. The air

(01:04):
above the Gulf Stream warms and spawns a low pressure system.
This low circulates off the southeastern US coast, gathering warm
air and moisture from the Atlantic Ocean. Strong northeasterly winds
at the leading edge of the storm pull it up
the East coast. Second, there's an Arctic high pressure system.
As the strong northeasterly winds pull the storm up the coast,

(01:27):
it meets with cold Arctic air blowing down from Canada.
When the two systems collide, the moisture and cold air
produce a mix of precipitation and a lot of wind.
Winter conditions make nor easters a normal occurrence, but only
a handful actually gather the force and power to cause
problems inland. The resulting precipitation depends on how close you

(01:49):
are to the converging point of the two storms. A
powerful nor'easter can bring travel to a standstill, closing city
streets and making it nearly impossible to get any where
for days. The thing to remember with northeasters is that
the storm systems occur frequently, but only a few of
them are powerful enough to make it into the news.

(02:10):
There are two types of northeaster's offshore forming. These are
the storms you hear about in the news. It's a
newsworthy storm that moves east of the East coast cities
dumping lots of heavy snow. In an offshore farming storm.
The hardest hit metropolitan areas are likely to be Washington,
d C, Philadelphia, New York City, in Boston. Eventually, the

(02:32):
system moves far enough north that the Canadian jet stream
pushes it off the coast, and then there's onshore farming.
These storms are less exciting than offshore farming storms. They
move west of east coast cities with gusting winds and
mostly rain. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
doesn't house stuff works dot com and don't forget to

(02:54):
check out the brain stuff blog on the house stuff
works dot com home page. You can also follow brain
stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain stuff H s
W