Tag: typhoons

Hurricanes known as typhoons in the Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean are immensely powerful storms, drawing their energy from warm tropical waters. These violent systems unleash destructive winds, torrential rains, and deadly storm surges, yet there’s one place on Earth they never cross: the equator. The reason lies in the Coriolis effect, a force created by Earth's rotation. This effect causes storms in the Northern Hemisphere to spin counterclockwise and in the Southern Hemisphere to spin clockwise. However, at the equator, the Coriolis effect is nearly zero, preventing hurricanes from forming or gaining the necessary spin to sustain themselves. Even storms that form near the equator are steered away before they can cross it. According to Mathew Barlow, a professor at the U...