Understanding Hurricanes: What They Are and Why This Storm Doesn't Qualify

Something odd is happening right now. A non-tropical storm system has been stalled over the Southeast, dumping heavy rains and causing severe storms, including tornadoes, across many of the Southern states. If you look at radar, you may notice the entire storm swirling like a hurricane, and even at times causing gusty winds throughout the county. What is a hurricane and why does our current storm not qualify?

Well, to answer the first question, we must define what a hurricane is. There are 3 things a hurricane must need to be classified as one. Firstly, a hurricane must have at least 74 MPH (Miles per Hour) winds sustained to be classified as a hurricane. This storm certainly is not producing that level of wind speeds, but did produce some 40 MPH gusts across parts of the state. If those winds were sustained in any area, it could be classified as a Tropical Storm. Storms must also form over warm water, and this storm did in fact form over The Gulf, a warm body of water.

There is one more thing that storms must have in order to be a Tropical Cyclone, however. That is, a closed low pressure. What is that? A closed low pressure system is a storm system that's Isobars form a full circle. You can see what that would look like on a meteorological map below.

You can see, the low pressure (L) is enclosed by a few circles of Isobars. Our current storm is lacking this enclosure, leading to it not being defined as a Tropical Cyclone.

Let's take a look at the same map of our current storm. The center of the low pressure is situated between Little Rock and Memphis.

You can see a broad area of low pressure centered over north Mississippi and into Arkansas. While that may be a good representation of what a circle would look like if you drew it blind, that certainly is not a closed low pressure system. Our low pressure more looks like an upside down boot. This means that either:

1. The low pressure is broad and disorganized

   OR

2. There is 2 low pressures, both of which combine to form one storm system.

Based on ground conditions, it is most likely just a disorganized low pressure. This disorganization prevents this storm from being classified as a tropical system.

Our storm currently has a history of producing gusty winds throughout the South, and formed over a warm body of water, it will not be classified as a tropical system due to its lack of having a closed low pressure.

Something that can occur with both Tropical Cyclones and these hybrid storm systems is severe weather. Severe weather risks are possible through tomorrow as the system starts to depart. Gusty winds are the main threats with our storm system, but tornadoes are possible as well. This is similar to actual Tropical Systems, with tornadoes being a threat within them.

We do know that Hurricane Season is right around the corner, and tropical systems are always possible around here. Subscribe to stay tuned for our Hurricane Season forecast, presented by Becca's Jams and Jellies. We will go in depth on how this hurricane season could impact our area, and will reveal the TempleWXBlog hurricane season prediction for the entire Atlantic Basin.