What does the temperature, air pressure, moisture, and wind have to be for a hurricane to form?
Michael Wyllie: These can vary but usually the required temperatures are water temperatures more than air temperatures. The water temperatures really need to be around 80 degrees. Pressure usually needs to be around 1,000 millibars or higher when the system begins. For moisture, many times what we see in the beginning of a storm’s evolution is thunderstorms develop so you have heavy rains before the system even has a closed low-pressure system. Winds, many times in the development stages of a tropical system, are below 30 miles per hour. Question: How strong can hurricanes be? Michael Wyllie: Hurricanes can develop into strong, category 5 storms, with wind gusts exceeding 200 miles an hour. Some of the super typhoons in the Pacific, which are the same as the hurricanes that we see here, have had sustained winds close to 200 miles an hour. Question: How do hurricanes gain strength? Michael Wyllie: Hurricanes gain in strength when they go over areas of warm water and low sheer in the upp
