Where Do Hurricanes Occur?

A hurricane is characterized by strong winds followed by heavy rains. Most hurricanes take place on tropical oceans. The storms thrive on large quantities of warm air and need humid atmospheres to occur. A hurricane, however, will lose its power as soon as it touches the ground or a cold ocean level. Therefore,  hurricane activity is limited within the latitude and the location of the ground masses.

Compared to the Southern Hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere, on average, experiences twice the amount of tropical cyclones. On the other hand, the Atlantic Ocean experienced less than two hurricanes per year on average.

Hurricanes occur in many places, during different seasons.

• Hurricanes occur at North America’s eastern coastline from Africa’s western coastline, but the western Atlantic Ocean experiences an average of nine hurricanes per year.

• Typically, most of the northern hemisphere hurricanes occur in the western portion of the North Pacific Ocean. These storms usually affect countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, and South Korea.

• In the Southern Hemispheres, the southeast Indian Ocean receives the highest amount of tropical storms. On average, it will usually get hit with approximately ten storms per year.
• Around eight tropical cyclones will occur in the southwest Indian Ocean per year and about six hurricanes will hit the northern Indian Ocean per year.

Typhoons and Tropical Cyclones

Hurricanes often get confused with typhoons and the terms are typically used interchangeably. Basically, they are the same thing –both generally referred to as tropical cyclones. The major difference lies in the location where the storm forms and start.

Storms that originate from the North Pacific Ocean are typhoons whereas those that originate from the Caribbean, North Atlantic, and Eastern Pacific are hurricanes.Typhoons are usually bigger than hurricanes, since they can start off in a much bigger ocean, such as the Pacific.

In the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, storms are referred to as tropical cyclones.