Cyclone

you need four things. get one wrong and it fizzles.

drag sea temp, wind shear, latitude and humidity — hold all four and watch a storm organize

A tropical cyclone needs four things at once: sea water warmer than about 26.5C, wind shear below roughly 10 knots so a warm core can stack straight up instead of being sheared sideways, enough distance from the equator for the Coriolis effect to start a spin, and enough mid-level humidity that a young storm does not dry out and collapse. Get all four and the storm organizes on its own. Drop any one and it fizzles — which is why most warm, humid patches of open ocean produce nothing at all.

all four held long enough to stack a warm core straight up — that is what a cyclone actually is.

Concepts: criticality, thermodynamics.

An interactive you play with one thumb, on Wundr.