Name: How Do Hurricanes Form?
Uploaded: undefined
Duration: undefined

NOVA

Carlisle Companies

Viking

NOVA Science Trust Logo

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.

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.

How Do Hurricanes Form?

Hurricanes are getting more intense, faster.

How Do Hurricanes Form?Published: October 31, 2024Dominic Floreno: 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.

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US & Territories

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future. (Premiered February 2, 2022)

In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate.

Arctic Sinkholes

The top half of Jupiter in blue and green against a night sky

A composite image of Jupiter using images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.

Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.

NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022

Four bright orange loops brand off of a dark blue blob

A transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (orange) replicating from the plasma membrane of an infected H9 T cell. Credit: NIAID, Flickr

Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?

How Do Hurricanes Form?

Support Provided By

Explore More

Deadliest Tornadoes

Inside the Megastorm

When Hurricane Sandy Went Rogue

Transcript

Credits

Support Provided By

Explore More

Deadliest Tornadoes

Inside the Megastorm

When Hurricane Sandy Went Rogue