Why does a hurricane need ......?

Question

why does a hurricane need moist air, warm ocean water, converging equatorial winds, and must be at least 300 miles from the equator?
If you only know 1 or 2 things plz still answer, anything will help now.

Answer 1

A hurricane/typhoon/tropical cyclone needs three things for genesis:

1. A sea surface temperature in excess of 26°C. The water evaporating from the sea rises and forms clouds. When the water vapour condenses into water droplets, latent heat is released into the atmosphere. More latent heat is released when the water droplets freeze into ice crystals inside the cloud. It is this latent heat that fuels the hurricane.

2. At least 5° from the equator. The Coriolis effect is the turning motion given to anything moving over the planet. It gives a motion of one revolution per day in line with the one revolution per day of the planet. The strength of the Coriolis effect is proportional to the sine of the latitude so it is zero at the equator, strongest at the poles. The weather system needs to be at least 5° from the equator to get enough spin from Coriolis.

3. A pre-existing low pressure system. This is the monsoon trough also known as the equatorial trough or the inter-tropical convergence zone. The trough moves north and south of the equator with the apparent movement of the Sun so it is in the northern hemisphere during their summer. At the moment it is in the southern hemisphere.

The pre-existing low provides the mechanism for the air to rise. The abundance of moisture from the warm seas provides the cloud and the latent heat to take the cloud to the tropopause and the Coriolis effect gets the system rotating.

Answer 2

Meteorology is not so simple as the TV weatherman makes it sound. The thing to know about weather is that it is a phenomenon of cold and warm air mixing. Warm air rises, cool air sinks. As the cool are sinks it gets warmed up by the daytime surface, so it rises again, where it is cooled down. When it cools down to the condensation point, or dew point as it's called, clouds form. That is the ceiling for any given day. It could be at 4,000 feet, or it could be at 20,000 feet, wherever you see clouds. In a hurricane, very warm air and the warm ocean waters rise and mix with the cooler air. If the temperature difference is very high, a cyclonic effect happens where the mixing air starts spinning as it mixes with the cooler air. There is no shortage of warmer air because the air sitting on top of the warm ocean water is in constant supply. The distance from the equator is attributable to the coreolis effect, where things in the northern hemispher tend to turn counter-clockwise, and vice-versa for the southern hemisphere. Too close to the equator doesn't allow for the coreolis effect. This is a very non-technical explanation, there are many websites that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about hurricanes.

Answer 3

Try this, put your finger in a room temperature glass of water. Now take it out, what do you feel? Cool right? of course because evaporation cools things down. Now what do you think condensation does? You are right produces heat. What is a hurricane? condensation, precipitation, a heat factory, rain, rising air. As the air rises it cools, if it has moisture it condenses. Yes a hurricane does go round and round but the power comes from the heat of condensation. Hot air expands, is less dense, rises.

Now what do you think happens if a hurricane is over land? I suppose if a hurricane can suck moist air out of a desert it would gain speed. What are the chances of that happening? Try this, now put your hand in an empty glass, now remove it. Not very exciting huh?

Answer 4

Hurricanes consist of high-velocity winds blowing circularly around a low-pressure center, known as the eye of the storm. The low-pressure center develops when the warm, saturated air prevalent in the doldrums is underrun and forced upward by denser, cooler air. From the edge of the storm toward its center, the atmospheric pressure drops sharply and the wind velocity rises. The winds attain maximum force close to the point of lowest pressure (about 724 torr, or about 28.5 in. of mercury). The diameter of the area affected by winds of destructive force may exceed 240 km (150 mi). Gale winds prevail over a larger area, averaging 480 km (300 mi) in diameter. The strength of a hurricane is rated from 1 to 5. The mildest, Category 1, has winds of at least 120 km/h (74 mph). The strongest (and rarest), Category 5, has winds that exceed 250 km/h (155 mph). Within the eye of the storm, which averages 24 km (15 mi) in diameter, the winds stop and the clouds lift, but the seas remain very violent.

Answer 5

The hurricane needs warm water because the warm water is the energy for the hurricane. That's why hurricanes can't form on land there's no warm water.

Answer 6

Needs the water the most to gain its strength along with a warm atmosphere. So yes near the equator.

Am I helping at all. Cause my tylenol PMs are kickin in.