where do hurricanes occur?

Answers to where do hurricanes occur

Many United States residents perceive the North Atlantic Ocean basin as a proliferate producer of hurricanes due to the publicity these storms generate. In reality, the North Atlantic is generally a marginal basin in terms of hurricane activity. Every tropical ocean except the South Atlantic and Southeast Pacific contains hurricanes, several of which produce more hurricanes annually than the North Atlantic. For example, the most active ocean basin in the world --- the Northwest Pacific --- averages 17 hurricanes per year. The second most active is the eastern North Pacific, which averages 10 hurricanes. In contrast, the North Atlantic mean annual number of hurricanes is 6.

Hurricanes are generally a summer phenomenon, but the length of the hurricane season varies in each basin, as does the peak of activity (Table 2). For example, the Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on June 1 and ends November 30, but most tropical storms and hurricanes form between August 15 to October 15. The Atlantic hurricane season "peaks" around September 10. In contrast, hurricanes occur year-round in the western North Pacific, with a longer active regime lasting from July to November peaking around September 1. In general, this pattern exists for other basins (with a late summer peak), although Southern Hemisphere hurricanes are 6 months out of phase. The exception is the North Indian basin, where there are two peaks in May and November.

A hurricane, which is a Caribbean Indian word for "evil spirit and big wind", is a large rotating system of oceanic tropical origin with sustained surface winds of at least 74 mph somewhere in the storm. Due to the earth's rotation, these storms spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere; both types of hemispheric spins are referred to as cyclonic rotation. These storms occur worldwide, and are called different names in different locations (Holland 1993). In the Northwest Pacific across 180 degrees E, they are called typhoons. In the Philippines, they are called chubasco. Around Australia, they are called severe tropical cyclones, while India calls them severe cyclonic storms. In deference to United States readers, storms in this 74-mph or faster category will be called hurricanes in this book.

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