Science behind Hurricanes

Hurricanes are huge heat engines that run on warm water, capable of producing roughly 200
times the entire world's electrical generating capacity with rain and cloud formation alone. Their
power source is the sun, which heats up tropical sea water all spring to have the engines building
and revving themselves by early summer.
Up-and-coming cyclones are categorized by their wind speeds and their degree of organization,
giving forecasters a way to classify the threats they pose. Tropical cyclone formation is generally
divided into the following four steps:

Tropical disturbance: a loosely organized system of tropical or subtropical storming that

maintains itself for at least 24 hours. Even the largest hurricane was once a humble
disturbance.

Tropical depression: a tropical disturbance that has tightened into a cyclone and
developed a closed loop of circulation. Tropical depressions have a maximum sustained
wind speed of 38 mph.

Tropical storm: a tropical depression with more concentrated storming near its center
and with outer rainfall forming distinct bands. Tropical storms have maximum sustained
wind speeds between 39 and 73 mph.

Hurricane/typhoon: a tropical storm that has come of age, with tight, powerful cloud
rotation and maximum sustained wind speeds of 74 mph or higher. Known as
"hurricanes" in the Atlantic and "typhoons" in the Pacific, major tropical cyclones are
further classified by strength, from a Category 1 to a Category 5.

The birth of a tropical cyclone begins when warm surface water evaporates, rises, cools and falls
back down as rain. This creates a thunderstorm, the building block of hurricanes, and it's this
thunderstorm activity that releases stored heat from sea water so it can fuel the growing cyclone.
The water has to be at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 150 feet deep, but it also must be at least
300 miles away from the equator to glean the right amount of spin from the Coriolis effect.
Once enough heat is being pumped from the sea into the sky, an outside disturbance is still
needed to get everything spinning. One of the more common triggers in the Atlantic is something
called an "African easterly wave," produced by temperature differences between the Sahara
Desert and the Gulf of Guinea. These waves travel west along a path of warm water known as
"Hurricane Alley", often stirring up a cyclone along the way. In fact, 60 percent of all Atlantic
tropical storms begin with such waves from west Africa, as do 85 percent of the basin's major
hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
By the time a tropical cyclone evolves into a hurricane, most of the storm has organized into rain
bands, which are horizontal cloud strips that vacuum up warm water vapor and send it to the sky,
where it cools and condenses into rain. But some cool air is sent inward to the storm's point of
lowest atmospheric pressure, where it sinks down and can create a deceptively tranquil, cloudfree zone known as the "eye." The eye is separated from the rain bands spiraling around it by the
"eye wall," where the storm's winds are strongest.
Tropical cyclones are typically a summer phenomenon, since they can't exist without lots of
warm, sun-baked sea water. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through
Nov. 30, but the region's cyclones don't always follow the rules, sometimes arriving early and
sometimes flouting their curfew. The latest date that a tropical storm was ever recorded in the
Atlantic is Dec. 30, which has happened twice: Hurricane Alice in 1954 and Hurricane Zeta in
2005.
Since the Pacific Ocean is larger and warmer than the Atlantic, its typhoon season is usually
longer and more intense. Some areas are so active that they have no official "seasons," with
cyclones sprouting up virtually year-round. Still, most regions see few typhoons in winter, with
the vast majority developing between May and December.

In both the Atlantic and Pacific basins, cyclone formation shifts into high gear by late summer,
hitting its peak around August or September. The Atlantic hurricane season's average peak is
Sept. 10, and many of the worst storms in U.S. history have occurred within two weeks of that
date.
Seven ocean basins around the world host tropical cyclones, six of which are in the Pacific or
Indian oceans and only two of which directly affect the United States. One, off the coast of
western Mexico, presents little risk to U.S. soil aside from rare clashes with Hawaii. The other
fills up much of the North Atlantic, and is responsible for almost all hurricanes that hit the United
States.
All seven basins have at least one big risk factor in common: lots of warm sea water to their
northwest or southwest, a problem since tropical storms feed on warm water, travel westward
and like to curl away from the equator. But geography alone doesn't make a region susceptible; a
wide range of other issues like wind currents, water depth and coastal geology also play a role.
The U.S. East and Gulf coasts face a high risk because they're an ideal distance away from the
equator, and many of their large port cities are sitting ducks for big storm surges. Throw in the
annual blast of easterly waves from Africa, and much of the United States' eastern half finds
itself trapped in the middle of a busy hurricane highway for six months every year.