50 Fun Facts About Hurricanes Trivia for Kids

Hurricanes need lots of energy. What do they form over?

The sea surface usually needs to be about 27 degrees Celsius (81 F) or warmer for a storm to grow.

Which way do hurricane winds spin in the Northern Hemisphere?

South of the equator they spin the other way, clockwise, because of the Earth's rotation.

What is the calm center of a hurricane called?

It is usually 30 to 65 kilometres across and can be sunny while wild weather rages all around it.

Where in a hurricane are the very strongest winds found?

The eyewall is a ring of towering thunderstorms that surrounds the calm eye.

Roughly how wide is a typical hurricane eye?

Hurricane Wilma's eye once shrank to a record 3.7 kilometres, smaller than many towns.

A hurricane that forms in the northwestern Pacific Ocean is called what?

Near India and Australia the same kind of storm is simply called a cyclone.

Storms in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific are called what?

Wherever they form, scientists use the general term 'tropical cyclone' for all of them.

A storm officially becomes a hurricane when its winds reach at least how fast?

Below that it is a tropical storm, and below 39 mph it is only a tropical depression.

What is the top number on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale?

A Category 5 storm has sustained winds of at least 157 mph.

The Saffir-Simpson scale was created in 1971 by an engineer and what other kind of scientist?

Herbert Saffir was the engineer and Robert Simpson ran the National Hurricane Center.

Which two things does the Saffir-Simpson scale NOT measure?

That is why a weaker storm hitting a big city can do far more damage than a Category 5 hitting a quiet coast.

When does the Atlantic hurricane season officially run?

The busiest time is late August through September, with the peak around September 10.

Which date is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season?

Late summer is when the difference between air and sea temperatures is greatest.

Which letters are skipped when naming Atlantic hurricanes?

Six lists of names rotate every six years and alternate between boys' and girls' names.

Who is credited with first giving storms people's names, in the 1880s?

The Australian meteorologist named storms from 1887 to 1907, then the idea faded until World War II.

Why is a hurricane's name sometimes 'retired' and never used again?

A replacement name is chosen at the next meeting of the hurricane committee.

Before storms got personal names, what were they often named after?

They were also named after places or objects, like the ships they wrecked.

What happens if a season has more storms than the year's alphabet can cover?

For years the backup was the Greek alphabet, which was used in 2005 and 2020 before being replaced.

Which US city is home to the National Hurricane Center?

It sits on the campus of Florida International University alongside the local Weather Service office.

What do the 'Hurricane Hunters' do?

In the US, an Air Force Reserve squadron and NOAA both fly the missions.

Which US Air Force Reserve unit flies Hurricane Hunter missions?

NOAA's own Hurricane Hunters fly too, and Navy units have done it in the past.

A storm surge is a dangerous rise in what?

High winds push ocean water toward the shore, and it does not even count the waves on top.

Why do hurricanes almost never form right on the equator?

They rarely form within 5 degrees of the equator, because the Earth's spin gives them no twist there.

About how many named tropical cyclones form around the world each year?

More than half of them grow strong enough to have hurricane-force winds.

Which ocean almost never has tropical cyclones because of strong wind shear?

Only a handful of storms have ever been recorded there, like Cyclone Catarina in 2004.

A 1979 storm named Tip holds what world record?

It reached winds of 190 mph and a record-low pressure of 870 hectopascals near Guam.

Hurricane Patricia in 2015 set the record for the fastest sustained winds ever measured: how fast?

It formed south of Mexico and reached its peak on October 23 before hitting the coast.

Which 2012 storm was the widest Atlantic hurricane ever measured, with winds spanning 1,150 miles?

Nicknamed 'Superstorm Sandy', it did most of its damage after it stopped being a true hurricane off the northeastern US.

Hurricane Wilma in 2005 set a record for the smallest eye ever measured. How wide was it?

Wilma was also the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever by pressure.

Which director was on Kauai when Hurricane Iniki struck in 1992 and used the footage in his film?

He was finishing Jurassic Park, and a tropical storm is a big part of that movie's plot.

Which state did Hurricane Iniki hit, the most powerful hurricane in its recorded history?

It was the only major hurricane known to have hit the state, and it dissipated halfway to Alaska.

Which US city was 80 percent flooded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

Katrina became the country's costliest hurricane, with about $125 billion in damage.

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 caused huge damage mainly through what?

It parked over the Houston area and dropped so much rain that it tied Katrina as the costliest storm on record.

A hurricane called a 'Cape Verde hurricane' gets its start near islands off which continent?

They cross the whole warm Atlantic, so they are often the biggest storms of the season.

When two hurricanes get close and start circling each other, what is that called?

It is named for Japanese meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwhara, who described it in 1921.

'Rapid intensification' means a storm's winds increase by at least 35 mph in how long?

Storms that do this are especially dangerous because people have less time to prepare.

TIROS-1, the first weather satellite, was launched in what year?

It only worked for about two and a half months, but it proved storms could be watched from space.

Which then-unknown newsman reported live from Galveston during Hurricane Carla in 1961?

Reporters standing in the wind and rain have copied him ever since.

Hurricane Beryl in 2024 was one of only two Atlantic storms to reach the top category in which month?

The other was Emily in 2005; hurricanes that strong usually wait until late summer.

Which 2019 hurricane hit the Bahamas with 185 mph winds, tying the Atlantic landfall record?

It stalled over the islands for more than a day and became the worst natural disaster in Bahamian history.

Which 1992 hurricane was the last top-category storm to hit the mainland US before Michael?

Both flattened parts of Florida; Andrew struck near Homestead, Michael hit the Panhandle.

Which two storms are tied as the costliest tropical cyclones on record, at about $125 billion each?

Katrina hit in 2005 and Harvey in 2017; Harvey's damage came mostly from flooding rain.

Storms rated Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale get what special label?

An average Atlantic season has about three of them out of roughly seven hurricanes.

Which way do the winds of a tropical cyclone spin south of the equator?

North of the equator they spin the other way, because the turning of the Earth pushes moving air in opposite directions in each half of the globe.

In an average year, how many Atlantic storms grow strong enough to become hurricanes?

Around 14 storms get names each season, and the busiest year for named storms was 2020 with 30.

How high above the ground are hurricane winds measured for the Saffir-Simpson scale?

The wind is averaged over one minute at that height, and forecasters round the numbers to the nearest 5 knots.

What range of wind speeds makes a hurricane a Category 4?

The range was widened by 1 mph at each end in 2012 so that rounding between knots and mph would come out right.

What job did meteorologist Robert Simpson hold when he helped create the wind scale in 1971?

He changed Herbert Saffir's word 'grade' to 'category' and the scale went public in 1973.

Which Atlantic season had the most hurricanes ever, with 15?

That was the year of Katrina, Rita and Wilma; 2020 had more named storms but fewer hurricanes.

How strong must a typhoon's winds be for the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to call it a 'super typhoon'?

That is the strength of a strong Category 4 or a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic.