Why don't hurricanes form in the South Atlantic?

There are usually too much wind shear aloft in the South Atlantic to allow organized tropical cyclones that are strong enough to be named. However, one did form in 2004 and it made landfall in Brazil. It was never given an official name because nobody ever expected one to form.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-na...

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2004-03-...

Java satellite loop of this hurricane..loop may take time to load..

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/...

The people of Brazil finally gave this hurricane an unofficial name, Hurricane Catarina.

Since then, another tropical cyclone formed on March 11, 2010. This tropical storm was given a name of 90Q.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/nsf...

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They do, but very rarely. The reason is because the circumstances that allow for hurricane formation in the North Atlantic don't occur in the South Atlantic. More details at the link ...

There isnt enough ocean! The widest portion of the southern atlantic is very close to the equator and hurricanes rarely form very close to the equator. Although I will point out that there was actually one reported cyclone in the south atlantic and it was kind of recent (2004 I believe). The east coast of South America does still get coastal storms though, they just arent related to hurricanes.

One reason for that is due to wind shear, which makes the conditions unfavorable for forming hurricanes. Another is the lack of weather disturbances that are favorable for tropical cyclones. However, they do occasionally occur. One was Cyclone Catarina, which formed in 2004. It actually became the equivalent of a Category-2 hurricane before making landfall along Brazil's southern coast.