This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[CoreySamson]

This might be more of a numbering or routing oddity, but I never realized that US 270's western terminus is in Kansas, of all places. That was strange finding that out.

[Scott5114]

This might be more of a numbering or routing oddity, but I never realized that US 270's western terminus is in Kansas, of all places. That was strange finding that out.

Where did you expect it to go to? The Panhandle is US 64 and 412's territory, and the north edge of the Texas panhandle is covered by 60.

[JayhawkCO]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

[Rothman]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

We'll have to see about changing that.

[kphoger]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

We'll have to see about changing that.

Canada's arctic islands will have typhoons.  These will come from Southern Hemisphere and names will be in reverse alphabetical order.  This is because it current has no typhoons.  Falkland Islands, South Sandwich Islands, and Antarctic Peninsula will have hurricanes.  These will come from Northern Hemisphere and names will be digits of pi, in groups of four digits each.  First one will be 3141, next will be 5926, and so on.  This is because islands in Southern Hemisphere do not currently have hurricanes.

[GaryV]

Canada's arctic islands will have typhoons. 

Souky will get 2 or 3 hurricanes a year. Sometimes maybe more.

[CoreySamson]

This might be more of a numbering or routing oddity, but I never realized that US 270's western terminus is in Kansas, of all places. That was strange finding that out.

Where did you expect it to go to? The Panhandle is US 64 and 412's territory, and the north edge of the Texas panhandle is covered by 60.

I more or less thought it ended somewhere near Woodward. I just didn't know that it continued on to Kansas.

[kphoger]

This might be more of a numbering or routing oddity, but I never realized that US 270's western terminus is in Kansas, of all places. That was strange finding that out.

Where did you expect it to go to? The Panhandle is US 64 and 412's territory, and the north edge of the Texas panhandle is covered by 60.

I more or less thought it ended somewhere near Woodward. I just didn't know that it continued on to Kansas.

Am I missing something, or is US-270 entirely concurrent with other US Routes west from that point to its terminus except for its overlap with OK-23?

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Yes, it is. It used to continue further into Kansas, ending at Syracuse, and that section was mostly independent except for a US 160 concurrency. I believe KDOT cut it back in order to make room for a potential I-270.

[Poiponen13]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

And no tropical cyclone has ever formed in southeastern Pacific due to cold water.

[kphoger]

And no tropical cyclone has ever formed in southeastern Pacific due to cold water.

They will with my new plan.  It will be nice to see tropical cyclones form in southeastern Pacific.  These storms' names will all have the letter E as the fourth letter.  This is because E is my favorite letter.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

This might be more of a numbering or routing oddity, but I never realized that US 270's western terminus is in Kansas, of all places. That was strange finding that out.

For me, this is US 84 ending in southern Colorado after a long NW/SE jog through Texas and New Mexico.

[Road Hog]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

That's because Coriolis force is almost non-existent near the equator. Tropical systems cannot develop the spin necessary to develop into tropical cyclones.

[kphoger]

No hurricane/typhoon has ever crossed the equator.

That's because Coriolis force is almost non-existent near the equator. Tropical systems cannot develop the spin necessary to develop into tropical cyclones.

Might I suggest the same solution as to another problem:

the Equator will be farther north, and lines of latitude will be farther north too

[chays]

Nairobi, Kenya, is further east than any part of Israel. I'm not sure why, but this surprised me.

[kalvado]

Tampico, Tamaulipas has reported temperatures below freezing. At sea level. In the tropics. Despite having a tropical climate. Now that is unexpected.

I'm sure it's extremely rare but it happens. The RGV got a real blast from the winter storm in February 2021. The last one before that was in February 2011 (the Super Bowl ice storm), and the last really bad one was in December 1989. Tampico isn't that far away.

https://www.weather.gov/bro/2021event_februaryfreeze

Sometimes things work out strange. Latest snowfall in the season in Albany NY was on June 6th.

[Rothman]

Nairobi, Kenya, is further east than any part of Israel. I'm not sure why, but this surprised me.

That one's a thinker, but makes sense.

[JayhawkCO]

Japan extends farther north, east, south, and west than either of the Koreas.

[Rothman]

Wonder if any of those islands are disputed.

[JayhawkCO]

Wonder if any of those islands are disputed.

If it's in Asia, China is claiming it.

[TheCatalyst31]

Rabat, Morocco is closer than Toronto than to Muscat, Oman. The Arab states cover more land than I thought.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Wonder if any of those islands are disputed.

If it's in Asia, China is claiming it.

Doesn't Russia claim some of the northern islands as well?

[US 89]

There is said that there are only 4 or 5 places in the world that experience lake effect weather and snows -- 2 in the United States!  One is the Great Lakes Region, and the other is in the Salt Lake City Area.   Don't know where the rest are, though

Apparently a lot of places can experience lake-effect snow, or at least something close to, as long as a warm body of water is going to be nearby to produce it. Of course, many of these places ain't necessarily gonna get cold enough for the snow to happen or even stick, but even Florida could get "lake-effect snow" from the Gulf of Mexico if the temperature is to get low enough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake-effect_snow

This is late I know, but as a meteorologist who has studied this in some detail, I feel obligated to contribute...

Lake effect storms essentially requires air that is sufficiently cold to flow over a relatively warm body of water that is large enough, and the key is the difference in temperature between the lake surface and the temperature in the mid-levels of the atmosphere. If this difference is big enough, the rate of temperature decrease with height is large enough that it's considered "unstable", which can allow storms to form if other conditions, such as winds and humidity, are right. So in short, the lake has to be warmer than the air above, and the size of that temperature difference determines the likelihood of lake effect.

Whether it's snow or rain simply depends on how warm it is at the surface. Usually, the airmasses that are cold enough to result in instability over a lake are cold enough to have snow at the surface, but this isn't always the case, especially if the lake is warmer. The other big thing is that the whole process doesn't work if the water surface freezes over, which is why this generally isn't a thing in the Arctic.

The Great Lakes are perfect for lake effect snow because they're downwind of Canada and the Upper Midwest, which typically have very cold air in place during the winter that can later move over the lakes. They are also big enough that they take a long time to freeze over, so you have an entire fall and early winter season to work with where the lake is warmer than the air above. It works for the Great Salt Lake because it's salty and so never freezes. That lake is also shallow enough that it can warm up quite quickly in a short amount of time, which combined means there is also a spring lake effect season there.

This can absolutely happen over any body of water if the temperature difference is big enough. The reason the Gulf of Mexico rarely ever sees this type of weather is that for a typical Gulf sea surface temperature in winter, it's very rare to have an airmass make it all the way down to the Gulf and still be cold enough to produce enough instability. There are places in Japan, for example, where sea-effect snow is quite common because they are more prone to blasts of colder air from the north.

[Rothman]

Wonder if any of those islands are disputed.

If it's in Asia, China is claiming it.

Doesn't Russia claim some of the northern islands as well?

Those are the Kuril Islands.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Wonder if any of those islands are disputed.

Dokdo Takeshima The Liancourt Rocks, disputed between Japan and South Korea (and, by extension of the latter, North Korea, but Kim Jong-Un isn't interested in that)