Where did the change begin?
Labs / Geography
Hurricane Engine
Warm ocean water is a hurricane's fuel: rising moist air releases latent heat, and the Coriolis effect twists it into a spinning eye and eyewall. Drag the storm's track across the map and adjust the sea, the latitude, and the wind shear to watch the storm strengthen into a major hurricane — or fall apart over cool water and land.
Labs / Geography / Hurricane Engine
Hurricane Engine
Warm ocean water is a hurricane's fuel: rising moist air releases latent heat, and the Coriolis effect twists it into a spinning eye and eyewall. Drag the storm's track across the map and adjust the sea, the latitude, and the wind shear to watch the storm strengthen into a major hurricane — or fall apart over cool water and land.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Geography explains how places, people, and Earth systems affect one another. This model lets you change one factor and watch its effects spread across space.
Explore
Try the model
P 1005 mbWind 60 km/hTropical StormIntensifying ↑
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Drag the track ashore. How fast does a Category 5 collapse once it loses the ocean?
- Slide the latitude down toward the equator. Why can't a storm spin up there?
- Crank up the wind shear. What happens to the eye when the winds aloft tear at the storm?
- Route the track straight through the cool current. Does warmer surrounding water rescue it?
- Chase the lowest central pressure you can — which combination of sea temperature and calm air gets you there?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Connect the pattern to place: identify where the change begins, where its effects appear, and which process links those locations.
Check
Before you leave
What spatial pattern appeared?
Which process connects the cause and effect?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.