hurricanes / tornadoes

[fatgaz]

I know this might seem a bit of a daft question, but you know when water is draining out of a sink it goes clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti clockwise in the southern, or the other way round im not sure which is correct. Does that also apply to hurricanes and the like? do they twist one way in the northern and the opposite in the southern?

[Milvus]

Hurricanes rotate clockwise in the South and anti-clockwise in the North due to the Coriolis effect. There are no hurricanes at the equator.
Water isn't affected by the Coriolis effect and can rotate either way in either hemisphere

[Clanad]

Firstly, your initial premise is faulty, as seen here: http://www.ems.psu.ed.../Bad/BadCoriolis.html

The Coriolis Effect ( first described by Gaspard Gustav de Coriolis (1792-1843) caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis, is simply to small or weak to affect anything other than large, slowly forming bodies of air, such as hurricanes (generally,northern hemisphere) and tropical cyclones (generally, southern hemisphere).

[fatgaz]

thanks for the replies, it was just something that popped into my head, dont know why and dont know where it came from but at least i have learnt something, cheers Gaz