Overall, tropical cyclones are characterised by a closed circulation around a distinctive low-pressure system. Such storms can often reach a diameter of several 100 kilometres. Due to their enormous size and typical shape, tropical cyclones can be easily recognised on satellite images.
Depending on the geographical area, tropical cyclones have different names:
- Hurricanes are tropical cyclones occurring in the Atlantic or Northeast Pacific basin.
- Tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific basin are called Typhoons.
- Cyclones is the name for tropical cyclones occurring in the Southwest Pacific basin and in the Indian ocean.
Focussing on the Atlantic basin, there are on average 10-15 tropical storms per year. Around half of these develop into hurricanes, with correspondingly higher wind speeds. There are a total of 5 categories of Hurricanes. The stronger the hurricane, the higher the category. A good overview is provided by the so-called Saffir-Simpson wind scale (Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (NOAA):
- Category 1 119-153km/h Some damage expected
- Category 2 154-177km/h Extensive damage expected
- Category 3 178-208km/h Devastating damage expected
- Category 4 209-251km/h Catastrophic damage expected
- Category 5 > 252km/h Catastrophic damage expected
Another example from last year is the two hurricanes Lee and Margot (see wind animation screenshot), which first moved from east to west towards the Caribbean Sea in mid-September and then propagated northwards towards the US East Coast.
Shortly after this year’s hurricane season began, the first Atlantic tropical storm had already appeared, which intensified into a category 5 hurricane a few days ago (see first screenshot). On 2 July 2024 hurricane Beryl reached the eastern Caribbean Sea with wind speed of over 252km/h. Current forecasts assume that Beryl will reach the East Coast near the border between Mexico and the USA around Monday 8 July 2024.
You can currently track Hurricane Beryl with many of our weather maps. We recommend visiting our satellite map, the wind animation map and for further subnational and regional warnings, we recommend using our weather warning map.
