How a hurricane works.

[coriolis]

Understanding that convection and rising air gives rise (no pun intended) to a CCW spin. Once a hurricane is fully developed, is all the rising air confined to the center, or is air rising throughout the spinning mass? I'd say that the spinning mass at the lower levels is actually spiraling towards the center, resisted by the centrifugal force. As a result of this momentum tending to spin it out from the center, the pressure at the center continues to drop. As the pressure drops, the air is drawn in even more. I'd say that this is called "intensifying" Is that correct?
Now then, what happens to this plume of warm moist air once it gets to the upper level? It must then spread out over the storm. Does it tend to get swept along by the rotating mass below and spin out to the outer edges of the storm?

Someone please comment.

[isobar]

Those are some really good questions Ed. This link is pretty good:

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~nese/ch11sec3.htm

It describes the mechanics of a hurricane in great detail as if it were a car engine ... so you guys can appreciate it. I'm certainly no expert, but I hope this helps. Here is an excerpt:

Starting the Engine: Ignition to Full Throttle
As latent heat is released from clusters of thunderstorms that form a tropical disturbance, ill-defined areas within the cluster begin to warm. In response, air density lowers, prompting surface pressures to fall. Embryonic tropical disturbances often toss the point of lowest pressure around like a hot potato. But eventually, an area of weak low pressure will emerge if thunderstorms within an especially intense cluster congregate and combine their latent heat to establish a central warm core of air.
In response, tropical surface winds begin to increase in speed and converge around the incipient low, importing richer supplies of moisture toward the center. In turn, thunderstorms increase in intensity and begin to multiply in number. The release of latent heat now escalates, and surface pressure, responding to the warming, falls even more, causing converging, moist winds to accelerate further. If the system is far enough from the equator (generally at least 8 to 9o of latitude), the Coriolis effect will induce these fledgling winds to circulate counterclockwise inward towards the area of lowest pressure. When sustained winds reach 37 km/hr (23 mph), the tropical disturbance graduates into a tropical depression. The heat engine of the budding hurricane begins to chug to life.

Meanwhile, air pressures near the tropopause, in response to the warming from latent heat release, begin to increase (recall Chapter 4). In response to higher pressure aloft, air begins to flow outward (that is, diverge) around the top of the center of the tropical depression. Like a chimney, this upper-level area of high pressure vents the tropical depression, preventing air converging at lower levels from piling up around the center (which would raise surface air pressures and squelch the storm). Assuming optimum conditions in the heat engine manual still apply, this feedback process between the release of latent heat, the subsequent drop in surface pressure, and the corresponding increase in surface winds, will continue. When winds become sustained at 62 km/hr (39 mph) or greater, the tachometer mounted on the heat engine now reads tropical storm. Figure 11.5 is a visible photograph of Tropical Storm Iniki (1992), taken from the space shuttle. The circulation around a center is clearly visible in the cloud pattern, but there is no eye (a lack of an eye is characteristic of a tropical storm).

[coriolis]

Thanks Donna. Perhaps my questions are too "elementary" to appear here. I'll look it up. Before you know it, I'll be adding my forecasts to this board. (100% chance of dark tonight with a lightening trend towards morning)

[vbhoutex]

Thanks Donna. Perhaps my questions are too "elementary" to appear here. I'll look it up. Before you know it, I'll be adding my forecasts to this board. (100% chance of dark tonight with a lightening trend towards morning)

Coriolis there is no question too "elementary" to appear on this board!!! NONE!!! Part of the reason this board exists is to help educate the public more about the weather. For an "elementary"(which it is not) question you show a very good understanding of the dymanmics of a tropical cyclone..........and keep posting those forecasts!!!!