Nasa how do hurricanes form

To fill in the low pressure area, air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in. As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is vey calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure. However, when they move inland, they can drop many inches of rain causing flooding as well as wind damage before they die out completely. There are five types, or categories, of hurricanes. The scale of categories is called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and they are based on wind speed.

Others measure the height of clouds and how fast rain is falling. Still others measure the speed and direction of winds.

We also fly airplanes into and above hurricanes. The instruments aboard planes gather details about the storm. Abc Medium. Abc Large. People call these storms by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur, but the scientific term for all of these storms is "tropical cyclone", the scientists explained in a Tumblr blog this week.

Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern and central Pacific Ocean are called "hurricanes. This story has not been edited by economictimes.

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Investing Bad bet or value buy? Shilpa Medicare investors eye Laurus-like returns, but past capex yet to fire 10 mins read. But there is a lot of work to be done: CEO 17 mins read. 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.

This movement and warming causes pressures at the surface to drop. Then air at the surface moves toward the lower pressure area, rises, and creates more thunderstorms. Winds in the storm cloud column spin faster and faster, whipping around in a circular motion. When the winds reach between 25 and 38 mph, the storm is called a tropical depression. When the wind speeds reach 39 mph, the tropical depression becomes a tropical storm. This is also when the storm gets a name. The winds blow faster and begin twisting and turning around the eye, or calm center, of the storm.

Wind direction is counterclockwise west to east in the northern hemisphere and clockwise east to west in the southern hemisphere. This phenomenon is known as the Coriolis effect. When the wind speeds reach 74 mph, the storm is officially a hurricane.