What If UniverseOpen the simulatorHurricane simulator
Pick a category, click a warm stretch of ocean and follow the storm as the winds steer it toward land.
Try it now: free, in your browser
How the storm behaves
Hurricanes are steered by the winds: westward in the tropics, then curving away toward the poles. Over land and cold water they lose strength. The simulator moves the storm with a live wind field and draws its spiral, eye and track.
Most hurricane deaths come from the storm surge, the wall of sea water pushed ashore. The simulator counts the people living low enough near the coast to be flooded, along with those in the path of hurricane-force winds. Presets let you replay Katrina, Haiyan, Maria, Sandy and the 1970 Bhola cyclone.
Questions
What makes a hurricane deadly?
Mostly the storm surge and flooding rather than the wind. The 1970 Bhola cyclone killed around 300,000 people in Bangladesh, largely through its surge.
Why do hurricanes curve?
They are carried by the large-scale winds: the trade winds push them west, and further from the equator the westerlies turn them north-east.
Can a hurricane form anywhere?
Only over warm sea, and not right at the equator, where the Earth's spin is too weak to start the storm turning.
All numbers in the simulator are rough estimates meant to show what could happen, not predictions.