How do hurricanes form

Credit: NOAA. Meteorologists have divided the development of a tropical cyclone into four stages: Tropical disturbance, tropical depression, tropical storm, and full-fledged tropical cyclone. When the water vapor from the warm ocean condenses to form clouds, it releases its heat to the air.

The warmed air rises and is pulled into the column of clouds. Evaporation and condensation continue, building the cloud columns higher and larger. A pattern develops, with the wind circulating around a center like water going down a drain.

As the moving column of air encounters more clouds, it becomes a cluster of thunderstorm clouds, called a tropical disturbance. As the thunderstorm grows higher and larger, the air at the top of the cloud column is cooling and becoming unstable.

As the heat energy is released from the cooling water vapor, the air at the top of the clouds becomes warmer, making the air pressure higher and causing winds to move outward away from the high pressure area. However, they often move far inland, dumping many inches of rain and causing lots of wind damage before they die out completely. The two GOES satellites keep their eyes on hurricanes from far above Earth's surface—22, miles above, to be exact!

Learn more about this kind of orbit. These satellites, built by NASA and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA , save lives by helping weather forecasters predict and warn people where and when these severe storms will hit land. Our World: What is a Hurricane? Here is a movie of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi on August 29, , as a Category 3.

This movie was made from images taken by the GOES weather satellite. In the movie you can see the storm starting to form in the Atlantic on August 24 and becoming more and more organized as it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

How Do Hurricanes Form? Hurricane Fran. Why do we name tropical storms? National Hurricane Center. Recipe for a Hurricane Whipping up a hurricane calls for a number of ingredients readily available in tropical areas: A pre-existing weather disturbance : A hurricane often starts out as a tropical wave. Warm water : Water at least Thunderstorm activity : Thunderstorms turn ocean heat into hurricane fuel. Even fewer become hurricanes. Storms weaken when they moves over areas with cooler ocean water.

Nor is there as much humidity in the air. Hurricanes also weaken when they travel over land. As a storm grows, it goes through a series of stages.

It starts as a tropical disturbance. Then, with cyclonic circulation and faster wind speeds, it becomes a tropical depression. If the wind keeps getting faster, it becomes a tropical storm and then a hurricane if winds are more than 74 miles per hour mph.