Most significant tornadoes form under the storm's updraft base, which is rain-free, making them visible.

Evidence of a supercell comes from the storm's shape and structure, and cloud tower features such as a hard and vigorous updraft tower, a persistent, large overshooting top, a hard anvil ( especially when backsheared against strong upper level winds ), and a corkscrew look or striations.

Throughout its duration, it was a small tropical cyclone, although with a radius of gale force winds spreading 100 miles ( 160 km ) to the north, the storm's thunderstorm area quickly spread over Cuba.

Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau counties, located on the western end of Long Island, were hammered with wind gusts in excess of 100 m. p. h., but escaped the worst of the wind and storm surge due to being on the storm's weaker west side.

The storm's power was made apparent by its sustained hurricane-force winds of approximately with gusts to and the formation of an eye-like structure in the middle of the storm.

One of the major problems with the Blizzard of 1978 was the lack of foreknowledge about the storm's severity.

The fierce northeast winds from the storm — with the low pressure area stalled off of Martha's Vineyard — combined with astronomically high tides and storm surge resulting from the storm's low pressure to send water over low-lying land along the shores of Long Island Sound, Cape Cod Bay, and other bodies of water, resulting in some of the worst coastal flooding ever recorded.

Hazel was particularly destructive in Toronto, as a result of a combination of a lack of experience in dealing with tropical storms and the storm's unexpected retention of power.

In Mexico, 5, 000 people from Chetumal and surrounding low-lying areas were forced to evacuate, and after the storm's second landfall, another 5, 000 were forced evacuated from several municipalities in Nuevo León, with 2, 465 from Monterrey, and 1, 900 from rural areas, with a cost of $ 400, 000 ( 2000 MXN ).

" The New War ," the first Mack Bolan novel after Don Pendleton turned over Executioner series to Gold Eagle, is set during Hurricane Frederic with the storm's devastation having a major effect on the story.

Despite favorable upper-level conditions, its interaction with land — combined with the weakening of a ridge to the north — left the storm's center distorted.

Upon coming ashore, the storm's eye was about 20 km ( 12 mi ) wide, with gale-force winds within 95 km ( 60 mi ) of the center.

When Galveston's second major hurricane hit the Texas coastline in mid-August 1915, most of the Army units had scattered to safe locations away from the storm's path, with a few units remaining in the secure buildings of Fort Crockett or in downtown Galveston.

The storm's wrath was widely felt across Scotland, with 19 fatalities reported.

With Mount Pinatubo having already erupted once by this time, there were fears that the storm's heavy rains, combined with ash from the volcano, would create massive mudflows capable of burying towns 40 km ( 25 mi ) away from Pinatubo.

The storm's heavy rain and constant thunder may have overpowered the noise of the volcano, and with no systematic warning efforts, the residents of Armero were completely unaware of the continuing activity at Ruiz.

Despite the system's disorganized cloud appearance, combined observations from nearby ships, as well as a report from Manzanillo, Mexico, reveals Irwin's maximum sustained winds may have been as high as with a minimum barometric pressure of, which was set as the storm's peak intensity at 00 UTC on August 22.

At this time, a large circulation associated with Kenneth was evident, with the ship Silvie III reporting sustained winds, which was positioned away from the storm's center.

Further intensification was precluded by the storm's proximity to land and by shear associated with the upper level low near the Baja California peninsula.

The intensification trend picked up again the next day with a fairly rapid drop in the storm's central pressure as it entered the southeastern Caribbean Sea, a region typically unfavorable for intensification.

Throughout Songda's track, several islands were affected ; Enewetak Atoll recorded tropical storm-force winds with gusts up to 120 km / h ( 75 mph ) during the storm's passage.

The computer models initially predicted two distinct possibilities for the storm's future with some models indicating the storm would cross over Florida and enter the Gulf of Mexico while others indicated that it would stay offshore and move to the northeast.

The storm's most powerful, unofficially recorded gust of wind was reported at Pearl River Community College, at.

The effect of waves, while directly powered by the wind, is distinct from a storm's wind-powered currents.

Low amounts of wind shear are needed, as high shear is disruptive to the storm's circulation.

When the storm collapses and begins to release precipitation, wind directions reverse, gusting outward from the storm and generally gusting the strongest in the direction of the storm's travel.

Likewise, in the left front quadrant of the storm the observed wind is the difference between the storm's wind velocity and its forward speed.

The storm's maximum sustained wind speeds peaked at, achieving Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

The trough enhanced the wind divergence over the storm's center, allowing it to strengthen once again to reach hurricane force about south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The 160 mph ( 260 km / h ) wind measurement from Puerto Rico was taken by a cup anemometer in San Juan, 30 miles ( 50 km ) north of the storm's center, which measured 160 mph ( 260 km / h ) sustained winds three hours before the peak wind speed was reached ; however, the instrument was destroyed soon after and could not be calibrated.

They are capable of producing heavy rains and squalls of wind, as well as tornadoes, particularly in the storm's right-front quadrant.

On July 13 a cluster of thunderclouds grouped together to form a low pressure area. On July 14 it started to organize and slowly became a tropical depression on July 19, and quickly intensified into a tropical storm. On July 22 convection was displaced to south of the storm's center due to high wind shears, and case it to dissipate.

A high level of wind shear restricted the storm's strength to 55 km / h ( 35 mph ), which it maintained as it moved west towards Vietnam.

One contributor to the intensification was the high oceanic heat content along the storm's path.

In the storm's aftermath, citizens of the City of Galveston contributed and raised the $ 45, 000 required to repair the high school and the other Galveston schools and also to pay the teacher's salaries.

On August 26, a strong frontal trough weakened the high pressure system to the storm's north, causing a turn to the north during the next few days.

Although damage was severe along coastal southeast Florida, relatively few deaths were reported in those areas ; the storm's deadliest blow was on Lake Okeechobee as the eyewall crossed.

* Single, giant storm waves, building up to fourfold the storm's waves height and collapsing after some seconds

Before the storm's arrival, officials had set up several evacuation centers, and many residents had moved to higher ground.

The fear that cloud seeding could potentially change the course or power of hurricanes and negatively affect people in the storm's path stopped the project.

Wall clouds may form as a descending of the cloud base or may form as rising scud comes together and connects to the storm's cloud base.