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Hurricane Terms Explained

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

When tropical weather threatens, agencies from the local to federal levels watch the systems and try to gauge their strength. When a hurricane is approaching land, the National Hurricane Center will begin issuing watches and warnings. Here's how to decipher those:

HURRICANE: The storm has winds of more than 73 mph.

HURRICANE WATCH: Hurricane-force winds of more than 73 mph are possible within 36 hours.

HURRICANE WARNING: Hurricane-force winds are possible within 24 hours.

EYE: This is the hurricane's roughly circular center area where the winds are comparatively lighter.

TROPICAL STORMS: These generate winds of 39 to 73 mph. Watches and warnings also are issued for these.

LANDFALL: The place where the center of a storm intersects with land. Because the storm's strongest winds are not in the center, an area can be greatly affected even if the storm doesn't make landfall there.

ERROR CONE: This shows a broad path that a storm could take. Because of uncertainty in forecasting a storm's path and strength, watches and warnings cover large areas of coastline. Those alerts mean anyone in a watch or warning area could be hit by a storm.

STORM SURGE: The abnormal rise in sea level accompanies a hurricane or other intense storm. This dome of water (often 50 to 100 miles wide) sweeps the coastline near where the hurricane's eye makes landfall.

Source: National Weather Service

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