🔍 Key Concepts

• Hurricane structure – know where different cloud types (cirrus, altostratus, cumulonimbus) tend to form relative to the storm center • Outer cloud bands vs. storm core – which features spread far out and tend to ‘point back’ toward the center? • Traditional mariner’s method for estimating the bearing of a hurricane’s center using visible cloud patterns

💭 Think About

• Ask yourself: which of these cloud features would most logically ‘radiate outward’ from the storm center so that their pattern points back toward it? • Which cloud type listed is usually found in the upper levels of the atmosphere and can extend hundreds of miles from the storm center? • Which choice describes a feature that forms more in the feeder bands or outer shield of the storm, rather than right in the eye wall or central dense overcast?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify which cloud type (cirrus vs. altostratus) is characteristically found in the high upper troposphere and often appears as thin, fibrous streaks • Consider which feature would give you a geometric line of convergence that can be traced back to the storm’s center • Eliminate any option that depends mainly on local radar echoes or small-scale thunderstorm motions instead of the large-scale storm structure