Tropical cyclone myths: 13b) Doesn the friction over land kill tropical cyclones?
No. Friction acts to accelerate the low-level inflow, which by itself is not harmful to the tropical cyclone. But over land the tropical cyclone lacks the moisture flux from the surface that fuels the convection. Without the deep convection near the storm center, the cyclone rapidly fills. Numerical simulations have actually shown that if a tropical cyclone makes landfall over land that is very moist (a swampy region for example), that the tropical cyclone *intensifies* (Tuleya and Kurihara 1978). Wakimoto and Black (1993) suggest that this might have occurred in the case of Hurricane Andrew striking Florida.
