Animated explainer: How typhoon is formed

Originally published on October 17, 2013

Typhoon Wipha is accelerating northeastward toward Japan's capital, Tokyo, and the ailing Fukushima nuclear plant, and is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain, and high waves during the morning rush hour on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

This animation explains how typhoons form.

Typhoons form when warm, moist air from the ocean surface begins to rise, where it encounters cooler air. They merge into a cluster up to 300 miles wide. The cluster forms a single center of low pressure and begins to rotate. As air from surrounding areas with higher-pressure is pushed into the low-pressure center of the storm, the speed of the wind continues to increase. The continuing heat exchange creates a wind pattern that spirals around a relatively calm center, the eye of the storm, and the hurricane grows, powered by the ocean's heat and evaporation water.

When a storm cluster occurs in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline, it is called a typhoon. The same kind of storm is called a hurricane in the North Atlantic Ocean or the Northeast Pacific Ocean on the eastern side of the dateline. In other parts of the world it is called a cyclone.

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