Southern Hemisphere climate

Question

Does oceanic and land mass positioning affect tropical storm evolution in the southern hemisphere? And, do cold fronts migrate latitudinally " upwards " the way they drift "downwards" in the northern?

Answer 1

The fact that there is much less land mass in the southern hemisphere affects the climate and sea currents, but the situation is otherwise much the same as the northern hemisphere. Cold fronts tend to move north, whereas in the northern hemisphere they tend to move south. Hurricanes and typhoons are less common in the southern hemisphere, especially in the south Atlantic, and drift south, where there is less land to get in their way.

Cyclonic tropical storms form where ocean waters are heated by tropical or subtropical sun, and this heat is the source of their power. In the north, the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are a prime source of hurricanes because the ocean is hemmed in by land and heats up more easily than the south Atlantic. Hurricanes here do more damage and attract more attention than they would in the less populated vastness of southern hemisphere oceans. Just as hurricanes from the Caribbean tend to move north, those forming below the equator in the Indian ocean, where they are called typhoons, tend to drift south toward the vast emptiness of the Southern Ocean.