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life.
    Stages of Hurricane Development
    Tropical Disturbance

    Often called the birth of a hurricane, tropical disturbances are areas of showers and thunderstorms with a little wind circulation around an area of low pressure. They may have some towering cumulonimbus clouds and might last for more than 24 hours. In this picture, you can see a tropical disturbance that looks like a blob of puffy clouds. Beneath those clouds are a number of thunderstorms. A circular wind pattern is starting to take place. When meteorologists see a satellite picture like this—either a still or an animated loop—they know that it’s likely that the disturbance will grow stronger.
    Tropical Depression

    A tropical depression is the next stage of a growing tropical system. In this picture, the low-pressure area, or “depression,” is now surrounded by winds that have begun to blow in a circular pattern. At this point, the maximum wind speed will be 38 mph. The system will continue to draw in more warm, moist air, which will build more thunderstorms and feed existing ones. Meteorologists will plot the depression’s path and watch it for signs that it is continuing to grow larger and stronger.
    Tropical Storm

    When a tropical depression’s winds exceed 38 mph, it has become a tropical storm. The clouds have taken on a more well-defined, circular shape. Thunderstorm bands are flowing out from the center. Beneath this storm, the winds are so strong and the seas so rough, that ships must now avoid the area. A tropical storm’s winds will range from 39 to 74 mph.
    The storm is now drawing more heat and water vapor from the sea. It has a column of warm air near its center. As this column becomes warmer, air pressure at the ocean’s surface falls. The falling pressure draws more air into the storm and the storm grows stronger.
    This is the point in the storm’s life where it is given a name.
    Hurricane

    In these pictures of Hurricanes Felix and Dean, you can see a well-defined, concentric pattern of clouds and a well-formed eye. A storm achieves hurricane status when its winds are in excess of 74 mph. In the eyewall, warm air spirals upward, creating the hurricane’s strongest winds. The speed of the winds in the eyewall is related to the diameter of the eye. A hurricane’s winds blow faster if the eyewall is small; if the eye widens, the winds decrease.

    Hurricane Dean

    Hurricane Felix
    The hurricane is now drawing large amounts of heat and moisture from the sea. Heavy rains are falling from the spiral or feeder bands—as much as 2 inches per hour—and the seas are churning dangerously as the storm surge builds!

    How Do Hurricanes Get Their Names?
    There’s a great novel by George R. Stewart, Storm , which I assign to all my student interns. Storm is very popular among meteorologists. Written in 1941, and still relevant, it’s about a forecaster who used women’s names for naming storms.
    The idea must have made quite an impact on weathermen; during World War II, military forecasters began to formally attach women’s names to storms. Naming helps forecasters avoid confusion and keep track of the storms; it also helps researchers keep things straight. Most times during a hurricane season, there can be two or three storms at a time on the Atlantic and as many as two or three in the Pacific. That’s a lot of storms, and giving them names makes it easier to track and keep up with them as well as to go back and research them later.
    Each year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations, issues four alphabetical lists of names for tropical storms. There’s one list for the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and one list for each of the regions of the Pacific Ocean: eastern, central, and northwestern. The lists include both men’s and women’s names that are popular in countries that might be affected by the storms in each