Powered by the heat from the sea, hurricanes are steered by the easterly trade winds. Around the core, winds grow with great velocity, generating violent seas. Moving ashore, they sweep the ocean inward while spawning tornadoes and producing torrential rains and floods.

Hurricanes often can live for a long period of time. They may initiate as a cluster of thunderstorms over the tropical ocean waters, and once a disturbance has become a tropical depression, the amount of time it takes to become a tropical storm can take as little as half a day. The same may occur for the amount of time a tropical storms needs to intensify into a hurricane.

A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone, the general term for all circulating weather systems over tropical waters. Tropical cyclones are classified as follows:

Tropical Depression: an organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined circulation and maximum sustained winds of 38 miles per hour or less. When viewed from a satellite, tropical depressions appear to have little organization. Instead of a round appearance similar to hurricanes, tropical depressions look like individual thunderstorms that are grouped together.

Tropical Storm: once a tropical depression has intensified to the point in which its maximum sustained winds are between 39 to 73 miles per hour, it becomes a tropical storm. During this time, the storm itself becomes more organized and begins to become circular shaped, resembling a hurricane.

Hurricane: an intense tropical weather system with a well-defined circulation and maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher. In the western Pacific, hurricanes are called typhoons, and similar storms in the Indian Ocean are called cyclones.

A distinctive feature seen on many hurricanes which is unique to them is the dark spot found in the middle of the hurricane. This is called the eye. Surrounding the eye is the region with the most intense winds and rainfall called the eye wall.

Hurricanes, which can often live for a long period of time, are easily spotted from a satellite or radar animation, and are rated according to their wind speed on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. This scale ranges from categories 1 to 5, with 5 being the most devastating.