Idealised modelling studies have provided much insight into the evolution of tropical cyclones in the presence of environmental vertical shear. These studies have demonstrated the importance of environmental potential vorticity gradients, of the upper-level anticyclone and of tilting of the cyclonic inner-core of the tropical cyclone. In order to isolate the various mechanisms, modelling studies have used simplified profiles of vertical shear. Hurricanes are frequently observed to move into environments with more complicated environmental shear profiles, for example where the shear vector changes direction with height or the shear is confined to either the upper or the lower troposphere. In such an environment it is not obvious which of the above mechanisms will dominate in the evolution of the hurricane. This paper presents the results of numerical experiments with hurricane-like vortices and observed environmental shear profiles. The profiles are taken from data for Atlantic hurricanes provided by the Hurricane Research Division. The results from previous studies with idealised profiles of vertical shear are used to interpret the calculations with observed environmental hear