An intense, rotating storm system that draws its energy from warm ocean water, known regionally as a hurricane in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, a typhoon in the western Pacific, and simply a cyclone in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific. It organizes around a low-pressure center when sea surface temperatures, humidity and low wind shear allow convection to strengthen and spin under the Earth's rotation, producing destructive winds, torrential rain and storm surge. Tropical cyclones never form directly on the equator because the Coriolis effect needed to spin them vanishes there.
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The intense, concentrated rainfall a tropical cyclone delivers is a direct and well-documented cause of flash flooding, both along the coast and far inland as the storm weakens.
Storm surge is the coastal rise in sea level driven directly by a tropical cyclone's high winds and low central pressure, and is recognized as the deadliest hazard the storm produces.
Tropical cyclones commonly spawn tornadoes within their rainbands, particularly in the quadrant ahead and to the right of the storm's track, a well-documented secondary hazard of landfalling cyclones.
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