How or when do storms become hurricanes?
Tropical Storms become hurricanes when mena wind speeds reach 74mph. Are hurricanes just synonymous with the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast of the United States? Or do they happen here in the UK and Europe and how regular do they occur? Hurricanes are tropical features and require sea temperatures of at least 27C to be maintained. Sea temperatures round the UK are nowhere near that high, even in high summer, so they cannot exist at our latitudes. However, we do get the remnants of old hurricanes coming out of the tropics, and they get entrained into the Atlantic flow, causing some of the depression to be more active than usual., as they add extra moisture and heat. The infamous storm of October 1987 continued the remnants of an old hurricane, and August 2004, saw at least 3 ex-hurricanes come across the UK, giving a wetter than average month. We can get hurricane force winds from our normal winter storms, but we do not get hurricanes. Are all hurricanes violent and how do you grade them?
