All hurricanes are a product of heat energy stored in warm tropical waters.This energy is released into a developing storm through evaporation thencondensation. The warmer the sea surface, the greater the potential for heat tobe liberated into the atmosphere. The warming that occurs through the interiorof a developing tropical storm creates a temperature, and thus a pressure,gradient between itself and the surrounding environment. As long as thisprocess continues, the storm either maintains its current strength orintensifies even more. The stages of tropical development in order are wave,depression, storm and hurricane.
The hurricane frequency curve clearly shows thatWeather HeadlinesMon, 18 Jul 2011 14:18:07 ESTIWS0Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:18:19 ESTPowerful Typhoon Ma-on to Threaten JapanRecent model trends and the current thinking in the office is that the typhoonwill be slower than expected to recurve to the northeast, making it an evengreater threat to Japan.If the typhoon happens to strengthen a bit more, which is a distinctpossibility, it will become a super typhoon. Ma-on is expected to weaken somebefore or as it gets closer to Japan as it will encounter some cooler watertemperatures and an increase in the amount of wind shear. However, anyone withany interests in the island nation should follow the path of this destructiveand likely to become deadly typhoon.
Story by Mark Paquette, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist
