How Hurricanes are Formed

How Hurricanes are Formed

• When this warm and wet air rises, it condenses to form towering clouds, heavy rainfall. It also creates a low pressure zone near the surface of the water.
• Rising warm air causes the pressure to decrease at higher altitudes. Warm air is under a higher pressure than cold air, so moves towards the ‘space’ occupied by the colder, lower pressure, air. So the low pressure ‘sucks in’ air from the warm surroundings, which then also rises. A continuous upflow of warm and wet air continues to create clouds and rain.
• Air that surrounds the low pressure zone at the centre flows in a spiral at very high speeds - anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere - at speeds of around 120 km/h (75 mph).
• Air is ejected at the top of the storm – which can…