As we begin the 2010 Hurricane Season, there has been a lot of talk about tropical weather and and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Many along the Gulf Coast are worried that a hurricane or tropical storm could make things even worse, especially when it comes to storm surge. There are many different possibilities, each of these caused by intensity, forward speed, direction of movement, and track. There are scenarios that can help, and scenarios that can hurt.
One question I've gotten more frequently is, "If the oil is on the surface of the water, does the sun make that oil hotter and in turn warm the surface of the Gulf?" Since this isn't a solid covering of oil except right near the source, I really don't think we'll see much of an impact on water temperatures. Most of the oil is patchy in nature, so there still is a considerable amount of water that is still directly exposed to the sun and its heat.
"Will the oil help to kill a storm, since the storm needs evaporating water to fuel it?" Again, since we're not talking about a complete covering, there is still plenty of moisture rising off the surface to fuel a tropical system. Also, a medium to large hurricane is still way bigger than the slick itself. There's plenty of warm water out there to keep a hurricane going. The only inhibiting factor would be on something developing. Seas may be fairly calm in the area of development, so if something were to try to get going in the area of the thicker oil, it might have a harder time forming.
"If a hurricane passes over the oil spill, when it moves inland, will it rain oil?" That answer is "NO". The water needed to produce rain is water that will evaporate from the ocean waters. The oil will not evaporate with the water. On the other hand, wind whipped, mist blowing off the top of the water in a hurricane, could bring oil laced water droplets, but that would be limited to the immediate coastline where oil is present in the near shore waters.
"Will the hurricane's energy spread the oil in an even larger area of the Gulf?" Yes, but that could be a good thing. The wind, waves, and rain generated by a hurricane would tend to spread things out, but at the same time, it will accelerate nature's process of breaking it down. Although the slick might be larger, it won't be as concentrated and hopefully less lethal to marine life.
"Can the oil add weight to the water and slow or limit the reach of storm surge?" Unfortunately, no. Storm surges would probably be about the same as to be expected from other storms of similar size and intensity.
"What would have happened if oil was present during other significant storms of the past?" Different storms, different results.
For example, a Katrina scenario might be even more devastating, since the eye moved inland near Grand Isle. Storm surge would have brought oil inland to the southeastern marshes of Louisiana, and well inland with the surge in Mississippi and Alabama. With the levee breaks that were experienced, it would have been possible that oil brought in to Lake Pontchartrain could have covered the city of New Orleans.
Hurricane Rita or Ike. These powerful storms would have drifted south of the main oil area, pushing the storm surge with oil well inland along the Louisiana and upper Texas coast. Oil present near and east of the mouth of the Mississippi River could have rode inland over Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. I think Rita would have brought more of a concentrated oil mixture inland because of its intensity and forward speed, but the oil would have moved inland mostly in Louisiana. Ike on the other hand was larger, but weaker. It moved slower, so there may have been time to "dilute" some of the oil, but oil would have probably been found over a larger area of the Gulf Coast since significant storm surges stretched from Texas to Florida.
An "Ivan" situation, would probably help most of the Gulf areas west of Pensacola, because of more of an offshore wind, but oil could have moved inland on the "back side" of Ivan into the Chandeleur areas and the eastern shores of the Mississippi outlet.
A heavy rain type of "Tropical Storm Allison" caused massive inland flooding, but that freshwater eventually flowed into the Gulf, which could push oil areas farther offshore.

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