Hurricane Gloria was born two weeks ago as a small atmospheric distrubance off the Atlantic Coast of Africa, an area that is one of the most important breeding grounds for hurricanes, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Friday.
``During the peak of the hurricane season, we get one of these distrubances every three or four days,`` said James Campbell, an emergency warnings meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Silver Spring, Md. Most such disturbances do not become hurricanes, but when conditions are just right, the building of a hurricane begins.
By Sept. 17, the ripple that would become Hurricane Gloria was 400 miles west of Africa, heading toward the Caribbean. It was pronounced a tropical depression and christened Gloria early in the day. Six hours later it had already grown to a tropical storm.
Thunderstorms began to build, Campbell said. ``Moisture goes into the thunderstorms, latent heat (from the condensation of water vapor) is released, and that heat begins to build and slowly to form a low-pressure system,`` he said.
Tropical storm Gloria moved west across the Atlantic at 15 to 20 miles an hour, sucking in moisture and heat for strength.
Sunday, when it was 200 miles east-north-east of the Caribbean island of Antigua, it was declared a hurricance.
Gloria, which reched up to a typical altitude of 20,000 feet, was steered by winds at even higher elevations, between 20,000 and 40,000 feet. It was turned by a low-pressure system coming out of the Midwest and began to head north.
By midnight Tuesday, Gloria`s winds had reached 150 miles an hour, Campbell said, and it was launched on its course toward the Carolinas and the Northeast.
Gloria`s arrival a year after Hurricane Diana, which also traveled up the Eat Coast, could mean a new hurricane cycle is beginning in which the Northeast will be subject to more frequent hurricanes, said Paul Hebert, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center in south Florida.
``The big hurricanes tend to hit in certain geographical areas for up to 20 years at a time and then shift,`` Hebert said.
Although the hurricane season officially extends until Nov. 30, it is unlikely the Northeast will experience any more hurricane threats this year, Hebert said.
``From a practical point of view, very few places are affected by hurricanes after the first week or two of October,`` he said.