What is rapid intensification?

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Melissa Constanzer breaks down the concept of rapid intensification in tropical cyclones, explaining how factors like low wind shear, extremely warm ocean waters, and high atmospheric moisture levels contribute to this sudden strengthening.

Transcript

00:00This is a glimpse of Hurricane Milton's fury last October as it came ashore on the west coast of Florida, a Category 3 major hurricane.

00:08The storm will be remembered for many different reasons, but meteorologically it also stood out.

00:13Milton's rate of rapid intensification was among the highest ever observed.

00:19Over the warm waters of the Gulf, it increased its wind by 90 miles per hour in just 24 hours.

00:26It's very stunning how strong that storm became so quickly last October.

00:31And this is something we talk about more and more as waters in the ocean are so warm at this time of year.

00:37Rapid intensification is actually when you have a tropical system, already developed a tropical cyclone,

00:42and it increases by at least 30 knots or around 35 miles per hour in a 24-hour period.

00:48So this is where storms can really take off, grow in category size quite quickly,

00:53and obviously become very threatening to many that are maybe in coastlines nearby.

00:59What do you need to actually have rapid intensification?

01:02You need low wind shear, and you also need some very warm water.

01:06Often that is found this time of year.

01:07You also need an abundance of moisture too.

01:10So these are all different components that come into tropical systems.

01:13If we look at that dry air, for example, dry dust can actually erode sides of a hurricane.

01:19Hurricanes are like a top.

01:20They want to be symmetrical.

01:21They want to spin perfectly.

01:23So if we eat away one side of the storm, it's going to lead to some weakening.

01:27It won't stay as strong as it could be.

01:29The other thing that we talk about a lot is wind shear.

01:32And when we do have a lot of wind shear on a storm,

01:35instead of that top being nice upright and being a perfect shoot upward,

01:38it actually tilts a little bit.

01:40Once you get a top to tilt a little bit, it can get wobbly, unstable, can even fall apart.

01:45But with most hurricanes, they just can't stay as strong when they're not vertically stacked.

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