A CASE STUDY OF HURRICANE FORMATION

Abstract

The development of storm Alice of 1953 in the Gulf of Mexico is studied by means of successive changes in the thickness patterns between four standard isobaric surfaces. The manner in which the patterns change indicates that a tropical storm is generated in a cold low when a shallow layer of convergence is generated adjacent to a deep layer of convergence. The increased temperature gradient and accelerated flow thus produced may be a necessary condition for hurricane formation. It is suggested that the band of accelerated winds that characteristically appears north of an incipient center is an early indication that such a temperature gradient has been established.