Katrina. Fran. Audrey. Andrew. Summer and Autumn are both optimal seasons to travel to the coast for some rest and relaxation.

But depending on where your plans take you, your trip could be sabotaged by a big threat. In the past, those vacation destroyers have had names like Katrina, Fran, Audrey, and Andrew … hurricanes that devastated cities and uprooted people from their communities.

Between June 1 and November 30 each year, hurricane safety and survival are the highest priorities for many residents along the East and Gulf Coasts.

While the forecasted number of storms varies from year to year, one thing remains the same—the science behind hurricanes. Understanding hurricanes and knowing how to prepare when one is forecasted for your area can help you survive the next big storm that has the U.S. in its sights.

The perfect storm

Atlantic hurricanes, also referred to as tropical cyclones, most often form off the western coast of Africa, near the equator. It’s there that one of a hurricane’s key ingredients exists in abundance—warm water.

According to Dr. Mark Bourassa, an associate professor of meteorology at Florida State University, the warm water gives off water vapor as it evaporates. This warm air rises, where it encounters cooler air that causes it to condense, forming clouds and rain.

This process makes way for more warm moist air to enter the developing system while also producing a great deal of energy and heat.

A hurricane is stacked vertically, like a pipe, and the system requires strong surface winds to feed surrounding air into that pipe and provide a continual source of tropical air. “One of the key factors in hurricane development is the wind pattern,” explains Bourassa. “In order for a system to transition from a thunderstorm to a hurricane, the winds closer to the ocean’s surface must be stronger than those that are aloft or higher in the atmosphere.

This enables the system to continue to pull in more warm, moist air to feed itself and being the telltale cyclone pattern.” When the warm air and energy meet up with ideal wind conditions, a tropical system develops.

As the system grows and becomes more organized, what began as a thunderstorm moves through three stages as it strengthens—tropical depression (winds of 38 mph or less), tropical storm (winds between 39-73 mph) and then hurricane (wind speeds greater than 74 mph). “Once a storm reaches hurricane status, it often has three characteristics—wind speed of at least 74 mph, a defined eye and eye wall and low barometric pressure,” Bourassa says. Storm sizes can vary greatly, he says. “We’ve had small storms like Wilma (2005) and larger systems like Isaac (2012),” he notes.

But take away any of the components of a system, and it dissipates. Passing over land, cold water or encountering dry air all significantly reduce the energy a tropical cyclone is able to generate.

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