How Do Hurricanes Form?
Clip: Season 51 | 1m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
Hurricanes are getting more intense, faster.
Scientists predict that our increasingly warmer atmosphere and oceans will feed these hurricanes — we may not see more of them that we used to, but the ones we do see are likely to get more and more intense.
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How Do Hurricanes Form?
Clip: Season 51 | 1m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
Scientists predict that our increasingly warmer atmosphere and oceans will feed these hurricanes — we may not see more of them that we used to, but the ones we do see are likely to get more and more intense.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- [Narrator] Hurricanes are becoming more intense quicker.
Tropical storms are gaining strength and turning into hurricanes in days or even hours, and they can be catastrophic.
The strongest hurricanes can exceed wind speeds of 157 miles per hour.
They bring torrential rain and can cause flash floods and deadly storm surges.
Here's how they form.
Hurricanes form in tropical regions over warm ocean waters that reach down at least 200 feet.
As this warm water evaporates, it saturates the air and fuels the storm.
The crosswinds near the top of the hurricane, called "wind shear," can't be too strong, or they disrupt its formation by blowing too much dry air around.
And hurricanes need all that moisture throughout to thrive.
If all of these conditions are met, then wind speeds continue to rise, and scientists predict that our increasingly warmer atmosphere and oceans will feed these hurricanes.
We may not see many more of them than we used to, but the ones that we do see are likely to be more and more intense.
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