What is a Hurricane ?

What is a Hurricane?

 Hurricane

This is an interesting issue how hurricanes affecting air navigation and routes to airlines in different aspects during flying so, but what that mean hurricane? A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone-the common term for all circulating weather systems (Counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere) over tropical waters.

During flying all pilots except those especially trained to explore tropical storms and hurricanes should avoid these dangerous storms, so in my last post I wrote about thunderstorms, the tops of thunderstorms are associated with tropical cyclones commonly exceed 50.000 feet, but winds in a typical hurricane are more strongest at low levels, and decreasing with altitude.

As pilots we need to know an additional hazard encountered in hurricanes is erroneous altitude reading from pressure altimeters, so very important to know also is these errors are caused by the large pressure difference between the border of the storm and its center, so for example one research airplane lost almost 2.000 feet true altitude navigating a storm while the pressure altimeter indicated a constant altitude of 5.000 feet, in short tropical cyclones are very hazardous to avoid them, to avoid the storm in a minimum of time , some tips are:  try to fly to the right of the storm to take advantage of the tailwind, but if you fly to the left of the storm, you will encounter strong headwinds which may expend your fuel supply before you reach a safe landing area. Let’s review the most common types of tropical cyclones:  

Tropical cyclones are classified as follows:

1. Tropical Depression: An organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined circulation and maximum continued winds of 38 mph (33 knots) or less.

2. Tropical Storm: An organized system of strong thunderstorms with a defined circulation and maximum continued winds of 39 to 73 mph (34-63 knots).

3. Hurricane: An intense tropical weather system with a well-defined circulation and maximum continued winds of 74 mph (64 knots) or higher. In the western Pacific, hurricanes are called "typhoons," and similar storms in the Indian Ocean are called "cyclones."

Hurricanes are products of the Tropical Ocean and atmosphere.

Safety it’s in your hands Pilots, think Safety, Safety First is Safety Always!