Hurricanes
What Is a Hurricane?
Hurricanes are the most violent, strong, deadliest storms. They are large storms that produce winds of 74 mph or higher. Hurricane winds can damage homes, trees, and buildings.
How Does a Hurricane Form?
Hurricanes are formed by starting out as tropical storms over warm moist waters such as the Atlantic and Pacific oceans near the equator. As the warm moist water evaporates it rises until big amounts of heated moist air are twisted high in the atmosphere.
Water temperatures need to be 79 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for a hurricane to form.
Parts of a Hurricane
To the right, there is a diagram showing the parts of a hurricane.
Eye: This is the hole in the center of the hurricane. WInds are light and the sky is almost clear.
Eyewall: This is a ring of thunderstorms that swirl around the eye. The wall is where the rain is heavy and the winds are the strongest.
Rainbands: These are bands of clouds and rain that are far from the hurricane's eyewall. They contain thunderstorms and sometimes tornadoes.
How Are They Named?
Because there can be more than one hurricane at a time, they're named to keep up with and track them.
They are only given names if they become tropical storms and they keep that name if it becomes a hurricane.
They're named in alphabetical order
