# How do hurricanes form?

- Source: NOAA Ocean Facts (ocean-facts.noaa.gov), Public domain, NOAA National Ocean Service, Ocean Facts
- Reading level: Grade 5
- Subjects: Weather, Ocean, Science
- Topics: storm, tropical, clouds, hurricane, hurricanes, ocean
- Length: 197 words, about 1 min
- By: NOAA National Ocean Service
- Original: <https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/how-hurricanes-form.html>
- Page: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/r/noaa-ocean-facts/how-hurricanes-form>
- Open in Sprouts: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/?read=noaa-ocean-facts/how-hurricanes-form>

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**Warm ocean waters** and **thunderstorms** fuel power-hungry hurricanes.

Hurricanes are powerhouse weather events that suck heat from tropical waters to fuel their fury. These violent storms form over the ocean, often beginning as a tropical wave—a low pressure area that moves through the moisture-rich tropics, possibly enhancing shower and thunderstorm activity.

As this weather system moves westward across the tropics, warm ocean air rises into the storm, forming an area of low pressure underneath. This causes more air to rush in. The air then rises and cools, forming clouds and thunderstorms. Up in the clouds, water condenses and forms droplets, releasing even more heat to power the storm.

When wind speeds within such a storm reach 74 mph, it’s classified as a hurricane. The terms “hurricane” and “tropical cyclone” refer to the same kind of storm: a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters and has closed, low-level circulation.

During just one hurricane, raging winds can churn out about half as much energy as the electrical generating capacity of the entire world, while cloud and rain formation from the same storm might release a staggering 400 times that amount.

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## Picture credits

- NOAA National Ocean Service, Public domain (US government work) (<https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/how-hurricanes-form.html>)