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How Does a Hurricane Form?

Also as a Short: watch the one-minute version

How does a hurricane form, and why do so few storms become one? Warm ocean water is only one of six conditions that must hold at once.

Follow Hurricane Irma (2017) from thunderstorms off Africa to Category 5, and see what sets a hurricane's strength.

Chapters

  1. How does a hurricane form?
  2. Warm water is not enough
  3. A storm that feeds itself
  4. The six conditions
  5. Irma forms
  6. What sets the strength
  7. The answer

Sources (8)

  1. John P. Cangialosi, Andrew S. Latto and Robbie Berg. Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Irma (AL112017). National Hurricane Center, 2018.Cited for Irma's dates, categories, landfalls and the reasons for its changes in strength
  2. Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT2). National Hurricane Center.Cited for Irma's best track (AL112017): the maps and the wind chart
  3. Tropical Cyclone Introduction. NOAA JetStream, 2025.Cited for The six conditions and their numbers; weakening over land; and, on its Structure page, the eye and eyewall
  4. How do hurricanes form?. NOAA National Ocean Service.Cited for The ingredients of a hurricane; air rushing in under rising air
  5. Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. National Hurricane Center.Cited for Category 1 from 74 mph, Category 5 from 157 mph
  6. Glossary of NHC Terms. National Hurricane Center.Cited for The definition of a tropical wave
  7. 'Average' Atlantic hurricane season to reflect more storms. NOAA, 2021.Cited for The 1991 to 2020 average: 7 hurricanes
  8. Hurricane Life Cycle. Hurricanes: Science and Society.Cited for A wave leaving Africa every three or four days; the 39 and 74 mph thresholds; and its Genesis, Development, Ocean and Decay pages

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