# How Fast Could a Cyclone at the North Pole Achieve?

Given a tropical arctic region on a planet like our own, how fast could a cyclone go at the north pole where the Coriolis effect is greatest? In essence: have current cyclones maxed out the wind speeds or is there room to grow at the north pole?

• When you ask 'how fast could a cyclone go' are you asking (1) how fast can it rotate - rpm (2) the maximum speed of the winds or (3) how fast it can travel over the surface of the Earth? – Fred Jun 29 '16 at 6:02
• kaiserscience.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/… – userLTK Jun 29 '16 at 17:04
• @Fred a combination of 1 and 2 as they are inter-related – Dale Jun 29 '16 at 20:09

There's a few problems with this question. The first is, the Coriolis effect isn't a force in and of itself. It's a velocity dependent effect. If the wind speed is zero over the North or South Pole, the Coriolis effect would be zero. If the wind speed is 100 kph over the pole, the Coriolis force would be (if this site is trustworthy) $0.000146 \times V \times \sin(latitude)$, in other words, pretty small, but over long distances, a small force can create a significant change in direction. But there-in lies the problem to answering your question. It would depend on the size of the cyclone and the initial wind speed of the cyclone.