Why do hurricanes form off the coast of Africa?

Question

Why do hurricanes form off the coast of Africa?

Answer 1

  A hurricane has the task of transferring heat from the tropics to the north.

  Off the coast of south africa is where the water is warmest and a natural place to pick up the most amount of heat,and of course to initiate it's driving mechanism.

Answer 2

The "embryos" of hurricanes are known as tropical waves, essentially troughs of low pressure.  They move westward across Africa, but due to them being over land, they cannot organize much.  Once these waves pass off the west coast of Africa and over the warm waters of the tropical Atlantic, they can tap into the massive amounts of water vapor and heat energy that exists over the tropical waters, allowing them to strengthen into tropical storms and hurricanes (assuming other weather factors are right).

Answer 3

This is where the water is the warmest, and the atmospheric pressure is the lowest.  

Answer 4

Well... There are all sorts of answers for this...

So here we go. What do you need for a hurricane? A low pressure area, warm water (80 degrees or higher), and light upper level winds (so the storm isn't torn to pieces). As the trough deepens (strengthens) it begins to spin do to the coriolis effect. The west coast of Africa around 10 degrees north latitude is a perfect environment for the beginning stages of a hurricane because all of these factors are commonly present. Hurricanes though don't form off the coast of Africa, tropical depressions do. Once the depression is near the center of the Atlantic it will likely become a Tropical Storm, and then near the Carribean it actually picks up enough strength to become a hurricane. In the Gulf you can see rapid strengthening (i.e. CAT 1 to CAT 3 or 4) very quickly because the Gulf is very shallow overall and this means warmer water.

Now, you could also say that they form off of Africa because they want too... Or that they form there because Africa doesn't like the United States (Watch Blackhawk Down... lol)... Or maybe God? lol.

Ah, heck... You pick. But hows this for a question?

If baby americans use tiny spoons to eat do baby chinese kids use toothpics? Hmmm... ;)

Answer 5

Weather machine from those bloody africans!