Trade winds blowing in opposing directions cause the storm to start spinning. Are you serious?

Question

Have storm clouds fallen out of favour? Now rising air cools and produces towering cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds. Are clouds not now given credit for the production of hurricanes? At one time it was thought hurricanes couldn't start without strong clusters of thunderstorms drifting over warm ocean waters! Now it seems that the hurricane produces the clouds and not vice versa. Right or wrong all that is needed are the details.

Answer 1

Tropical storms always and I repeat always form from what I have coined "convective cloud clusters". The clouds are already there. The circulation is triggered by a so-called monsoonal flow, which is to say southwest flow south of the cluster and easterly trades north of the cluster. Now with these two conditions and surface temp greater than 28C and little or no shear aloft that would remove any latent heat of condensation, you have all that is needed for the cluster to turn into a tropical depression and grow into a storm.

Answer 2

It is the coriolis force that gives the whirling motion to the storms.That is why they do not form near the equator where the coriolis force is too weak to produce a whirling motion.Even the trade winds are affected by the coriolis force.It is deflected to right in the northern hemisphere and hence blows from north east.If the coriolis force is not there, it will be blowing from north to south.
When the hurricane or cyclonic storm forms,it will only be a low pressure area initially.Even in this stage, you can see cloud formations though they may not be in an organised manner.When it becomes a severe storm,spiral bands can be seen as whirling motion becomes strong.These spiral bands will be feeding moisture(when it is over the sea surface) to the storm from all directions .Hence all the moisture in the air of the surrounding areas will be sucked by the storm which may lead to formation of more clouds.So,the storm and the cloud formation aid each other even though the cloud formation stars first.

Answer 3

The lable hurricane is given to tropical storms that develop high wind speeds. Trade winds are called that because they were used to sail one direction the other -- east or west-- for trade. Where these areas meet, there is an area of instability. There is also a band of still air -- maybe the equator -- called the horse lattitudes. This is where sailing ships would get stuck with no wind to move them. They would take too long at sea and throw their horses off because there was nothing to feed them.

Answer 4

Indeed !! ?? (2 pts - thanks)