Why do Hurricanes not form at the equator?
Hurricanes are large and heavy engines which are run by heat. The tropics available in the North and South of Equator consist of warm waters during the late summer. The storms are not initialized near the equator because the rotation of the storms is caused by Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis Effect does not deflect the winds in required direction either in clock wise or anti-clock wise in the equator region. It is generally said that air at the equator region will not be held at low pressure and do not rotate. Rather, it can flow from high to low pressure due to the weak Coriolis force. If the air is not made to rotate near the equator region, storm cannot result. Hence, Hurricanes also do not form.
Coriolis force is considered as a force resulted from conservation of angular momentum. It solves the problem of spinning and every point on the globe changes the direction as well as acceleration. The speed of rotation of objects is about 25000 miles per day on the equator while the objects remain stationary near the poles in the same period. The Coriolis force will be maximum at the polar region while it is zero at the equator region. It was observed that Hurricanes are not formed around 5 degree latitude area away from the equator.
Hurricanes are known to be formed with the help of Coriolis acceleration which keeps them rotating. The Coriolis acceleration is influenced by the sine of the latitude at that region. If it is at equator, the latitude is zero degrees and hence sine of it is zero at the equator region. So, there is no possibility for the Hurricanes to be generated at the equator. When many thunderstorms rotate at a particular area with low pressure at the center region, it is called tropical depression. If the depression intensifies, the speed of the winds increase to around 75 mph. Winds blowing at this high speed along with depression are the symptoms of Hurricane to be formed.
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