Severe Weather in Mexico

Tornadoes.

Tornadoes usually form in intense thunderstorms. It would primarily form a rotating body of air on the ground due to the vertical wind sheer. The horizontal rotating air is then lifted off the ground by the updraft of a thunderstorm. Once the horizontal rotating air mass is lifted nearly vertically, it is considered a MESOCYCLONE. A mesocyclone is fully developed in the updraft of a thunderstorm.

Tornadoes are tied to their parent storms. So in the United States, Tornadoes move in the direction that the storm moves. Typically, storms move from the Southwest to the Northeast direction but they can move in any direction depending on the track of the storm.

As stated above, In the United States, tornadoes turn counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. The dominance of the rotation direction is indirectly due to earth's rotation.

Tornadoes don't usually happen in Mexico because of the low level moisture that Mexico has.

The average number of tornadoes observed in the United States per year on average is about 1000 tornadoes.

GLOBAL MAP OF TORNADO OCCURRENCE

Mexico is located right beneath the hot spot of the most common tornado activity. Mexico usually has some, but not as often as the United States.

Hurricanes.

 The three main requirements for hurricane to form is that it will need a warm ocean temperature because it will need lots of evaporation, a deep warm ocean layer in depth so when winds churn up the water, you still have warm water, and the coriolis is needed to initiate the spinning. During the months of June - August, the climate in Mexico is hot and humid therefore powerful storms are formed over the ocean gathering strength and eventually making landfall.

The main hurricane formation regions are in the Atlantic and East Pacific, Indian Ocean near Australia, and off the coast of China and Indonesia. In the Atlantic and East Pacific, they normally call this storm the "Hurricane". In the Indian Ocean near Australia, they call these storms "Cyclones", and off the coast of China and Indonesia, they are called "Typhoons".

In the United States, hurricanes are usually formed in the tropics and they usually travel from the east to the west. 

FORMATION REGIONS OF HURRICANES DIAGRAM

In the United States, the Hurricanes usually travel from east to west. These hurricanes tend to occur most in the Caribbean zone and then move to the Gulf of Mexico and into Florida, Texas and Louisiana.

Hurricanes move in the middle latitudes and are driven northeastward by the westerlies occasionally merging with mid-latitude frontal systems.

Hurricane season for Mexico occur between August and October and Mexico usually has one to two hurricanes per year.

The average hurricanes that hit the US per year is at 6.3. The website is www.aoml.noaa.gov.