THE MAKING OF A HURRICANE
It’s not uncommon for storms to stack up back to back during hurricane season
You need four ingredients to cook up a perfect storm: warm water, wet air, slow winds high in the atmosphere and a cluster of thunderclouds waiting to become something bigger. Hurricanes often start out as small storms off the coast of Africa. Known as ‘tropical depressions’, these embryonic cyclones move west, picking up strength as they cross the Atlantic. They can only grow when the temperature of the water exceeds 27 degrees Celsius, and this is only at certain times of year. In the Atlantic, hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. In the eastern Pacific it starts about two weeks earlier.