🔍 Key Concepts

• Hurricane wind circulation in the Northern Hemisphere (counterclockwise around the low-pressure center) • Relationship between storm track relative to your position (west vs east of you) and expected wind direction changes • Typical hurricane effects: pressure, wind strength, and sea state (swells) at some distance from the center

💭 Think About

• Sketch a simple diagram of a hurricane’s counterclockwise circulation and place your vessel so that the storm center passes west of you, moving northeast. What wind directions would you experience before, during, and after closest approach? • Ask yourself which of the listed effects is least consistent with a strong tropical system passing nearby on your side of the circulation, even if the eye does not pass directly overhead. • Consider how barometric pressure usually behaves near a hurricane compared to fair weather: does it change gradually or rapidly as the storm approaches and then moves away?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify which answer choice conflicts with the expected wind shift pattern for a hurricane passing to your west in the Northern Hemisphere. • Check which effect would be typical of almost any strong nearby hurricane (high winds and large swells) and therefore is unlikely to be the “EXCEPT.” • Think carefully about how quickly the pressure gradient changes when a powerful storm center passes relatively close — is it usually gradual or steep/rapid?