ANATOMY OF A HURRICANE

Hurricanes are born in the steamy late-summer environment of the tropics when rapidly evaporating ocean waters combine with strong wind currents. Several hundred miles wide and packing winds of more than 100 mph, hurricanes cool the Earth by sucking heat from the Earth’s surface and drawing it into the upper atmosphere above 40,000 feet.

Exhaust

Hot air is drawn into the atmosphere.

Spiraling storm clouds

Storm’s

Cool air descends into the 20-milewide eye, creating a small center of calm weather.

HIGH WINDS

In the lower few thousand feet of the hurricane air flows in toward the center and swirls upward. These spiraling winds gain speed as they approach the central eye, just as currents do in a whirlpool. The narrower the eye, the stronger the winds.

The largest, most powerful hurricanes ever recorded on Earth spanned more than 1,000 miles across with wind gusts as high as 200mph. But these storms pale in comparison to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane-like storm that has lasted for over 180 years, and is larger than the Earth itself.