Helene swings far inland due to Fujiwara effect

Hurricane Helene slammed into the Florida Big Bend as a Category 4 major hurricane, while less than a day before it was sitting in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Helene's quick pace through the Gulf was aided by another weather system over the eastern U.S., and the interaction between the two is fairly rare.

This phenomenon was first described by a scientist named Sakuhei Fujiwhara, who it was later named after. The Fujiwhara effect occurs when two tropical systems move in proximity together and begin to rotate around one another.

Tropical systems are areas of low pressure, and these systems rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere. This counterclockwise flow is also known as cyclonic flow. Generally, when two cyclonic systems are less than 750 miles apart they will begin to rotate around a middle point between the two systems. The entire binary system then rotates in cyclonic flow and will eventually become one broad area of low pressure. This is the fate for the remnants of Helene that will be absorbed into a low pressure trough this weekend.