Hurricane Path & Storm Surge Simulator
Watch a tropical storm form over warm ocean water and track northwest toward a coastline. Adjust the sea-surface temperature, wind shear, storm strength, coastal slope, and forward speed, then press Run to see the storm intensify or weaken, make landfall, and push a storm surge against the shore.
Guided Experiment: How does sea-surface temperature change hurricane intensity?
If you raise the sea-surface temperature while keeping wind shear low, how will the peak Saffir-Simpson category of the storm change?
Write your hypothesis in the Lab Report panel, then click Next.
Controls
wide shelf, higher surge
Storm Results
Data Table
(0 rows)| # | SST(°C) | Wind shear(kt) | Coastal slope | Peak category | Landfall category | Surge(ft) |
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Reference Guide
How Hurricanes Form and Intensify
Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean water. As warm, moist air rises off the sea surface, it condenses and releases heat that powers the storm. This feedback only runs strongly when the water is warm enough.
The widely used threshold is about 26.5 °C. Below that temperature, a storm struggles to organize and intensify. Above it, warmer water raises the maximum potential intensity the storm can reach. Deeper warm water sustains a storm even longer.
What Wind Shear Does
Wind shear is the change in wind speed or direction with height. Strong shear tilts and disrupts the vertical structure of a hurricane, ventilating its warm core and pushing the thunderstorms away from the center.
Low shear lets a storm stack vertically and organize, so it can approach its potential intensity. High shear caps how strong a storm can get even over very warm water. Forecasters watch both ocean heat and shear together when predicting intensity.
The Saffir-Simpson Scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale rates hurricanes from Category 1 to Category 5 based on sustained wind speed. Storms below hurricane strength are called tropical depressions and tropical storms.
Storm Surge and Coastal Slope
Storm surge is the rise of seawater pushed onshore by a hurricane's winds. It is often the deadliest hazard of a landfalling storm. The stronger the winds at landfall, the higher the surge tends to be.
The shape of the seafloor also matters. A gentle, shallow continental shelf lets the wind pile water higher against the coast, so a low-lying gentle coast faces the greatest flood risk. A steep shelf drops off quickly and produces a smaller surge for the same storm.
