How do hurricanes form?

Hurricane is the most intense storm on the planet. People call these storms other names, such as typhoons or low atmospheric pressure, depending on where they arise. The scientific terms of all these storms are tropical cyclones. Only the tropical cyclones formed in the Atlantic or the East Pacific are known as "hurricanes."

Tropical cyclones like gigantic engines use warm, moist air as fuel. That's why it can only be formed by warm seawater near the equator. The warm moist air above the sea rises from near the surface of the earth. Since this air moves upward away from the surface, it leaves less air near the surface. To put it another way, it means that warm air goes up and areas below pneumatic pressure arise.

Air from the surrounding area with higher air pressure is pushed into the low pressure area. Then the "new" air becomes warm and moist and rises. As warm air continues to rise, ambient air flows around there. When warm moist air goes up and cools, water in the air forms clouds. The entire cloud and wind system rotates and grows, and the heat and water of the sea evaporates from the surface.

The storm that forms the north of the equator rotates counterclockwise. The storm in the south of the equator rotates clockwise. This difference is due to rotation on the axis of the earth.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, the eyes are formed in the center. It is very calm, clear, and has low air pressure. High pressure air from above flows into the eyes

If you can fall into a tropical cyclone, that looks like this. A small red arrow indicates that warm, moist air rises from the surface of the ocean and forms clouds around the eyes. Blue arrows indicate cooling and dry air flows between the eyes and cloud bands. A large red arrow indicating the rising cloud band rotation

When the rotating storm wind speed reaches 39 miles per hour, the storm is called a "tropical storm". When the wind speed reaches 74 mph, the storm will be officially "tropical cyclone" or a hurricane

When tropical cyclones hit land, they are no longer "supplied" by the energy from warm seawater, so they usually weaken. But they often move inland, throw in a few inches of rain and cause a lot of wind damage before they die.

The two GOES satellites are staring at hurricanes more than 2,200 miles away from the surface of the earth. (Learn more about such tracks.)

These satellites were built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and are operated by the United States Marine and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

How was the hurricane formed? Dust and sand in the eastern part of the Sahara blows to the Atlantic Ocean to the west. At the same time, small convection starts to be formed due to temperature difference. The moist air flowing from the sea level (at least 26 ° C) rises towards cooler air and falls to fill that position. Water vapor adheres to dust and sand and forms clouds. Convection accelerates, clouds become thunderstorms. Finally, due to the counterclockwise rotation of the Earth, the cloud starts to rotate. Depending on wind speed, the cyclone has various titles.

A hurricane is a big storm that winds rotate. If there is a large pressure difference and temperature difference between hot water and clouds, they form warm seawater. Clouds draw moisture and air near the surface of the water toward the clouds, creating a series of fast-moving air. Sometimes the air in one place is warmer than the air in another nearby. Warm air is thinner and lighter than cold air. When heavy cold air comes in contact with hot air, push it and push it. Some warm air moves sideways, some of which move up. As warm air moves laterally and continues to move upwards and outwards, cold air will flow and replace that position. The movement of this air is the wind. In most cases, most of the air on the surface of the earth is moving.