In the Northern Hemisphere, which direction do hurricanes rotate?

In the Northern Hemisphere, hurricanes rotate counterclockwise.

This circulation occurs because a hurricane is a powerful low-pressure system and Earth’s rotation produces the Coriolis effect. Air moving toward the storm’s center is deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, creating a counterclockwise spiral around the eye when viewed from above. In the Southern Hemisphere, the same process produces clockwise rotation.

The winds do not simply spin in a perfect circle. They spiral inward near the surface, feeding thunderstorms in the eyewall, while air rises over the center and flows outward near the top of the storm. The eye itself is often comparatively calm because air is descending there.

A common mix-up is confusing a hurricane’s rotation with its travel direction. A Northern Hemisphere hurricane may generally move westward early in its life, then curve poleward and eastward, but its circulation remains counterclockwise. Hurricanes also rarely form close to the equator because the Coriolis effect is too weak there to organize a rotating circulation.