The Science Behind Hurricanes

Hurricanes are pretty complicated weather phenomenons, so I won't get super detailed in this article. Hurricanes are dangerous storms that occur in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans. The pre-stages of hurricane development in the Atlantic begin in Africa, when large, organized areas of thunderstorms move off of the western coast of Africa and into the Atlantic, south of the Cape Verde islands. When these storms move over the warm waters of the Atlantic by the Equator, they cause warm, moist air to rise. This helps to contribute in further development of these thunderstorms. It also sometimes forms low pressure at the surface.

As the area of thunderstorms get more organized and developed over the ocean, they start to spin around the center of the low pressure circulation. When this low pressure system develops a cold core around the center of thunderstorms and there is a clear, center of circulation, this system would either get classified as a tropical depression or even a tropical storm. This classification depends on the maximum wind speed, where a tropical storm has at least 39 mph winds.

When the conditions are right and favorable, the tropical depression or storm stregthens over the warm, ocean waters and in the low wind shear environment. As this system moves in the common westward direction over the Atlantic, it gets stronger. Eventually it may become a hurricane, which is when winds pick up to at least 74 mph. Due to the strong winds of a hurricane, which will cause the storm to spin faster, hurricanes will often develop an eye. The eye of the storm is always in the center where the calm and clear conditions are. This is also the area of the lowest pressure that the bands of strong thunderstorms and winds rotate around.

Hurricanes are classified into five different catergories, which depend on the speed of the winds:

Now you know the science behind hurricanes.

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