When someone talks about Hurricanes, what do you think of? Or which Hurricane comes to mind when the word is brought up? Those in New Orleans immediately think of Hurricane Katrina and the destructive force that came with it from just beyond the Bahamas and Cuba though much of the southeastern United States. For everyone though, they think of the storms that start in the Atlantic Ocean and find their way to the southern part of the United States or into Mexico after they pass through the dozens of tropical islands just south of Florida. It all starts between 23.5 degrees north of the equator and 23.5 degrees south of the equator. With these limitations of where they can form, they can become very destructive and frightening once they start to occur. Once a small tropical disturbance occurs, with the conditions being right Hurricanes can become a tropical storm and with the right ingredients they become a full blown, destructive machine known as a Hurricane.
Hurricanes, once formed, have the will to become an intense storm after they have started forming as tropical disturbances in the tropics. They can sustain winds that can reach 74 miles per hour or higher for long periods of time. They start to occur when the weather is perfect, the surface air pressure will be low, light winds, high humidity, water temperature in a vast area has to be 80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. Most Hurricanes when they start to form start to occur just off the most western edge of the continent of Africa. They need to have a trigger to be able to form because Hurricanes can't form spontaneously. Hurricanes don't form right away when they are triggered. When they start to form, it is only after they started as a tropical storm. If there is a long stretch of warm water, a couple hundred miles, that is where the tropical storms will not only become a Hurricane but also it can become more destructive along the lines of what happened in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina.
How they occur over a period of time is that they will formally start as a tropical disturbance such as a mass of thunderstorms with a little wind circulation. When the winds start to reach 20 to 34 knots (23 to 39 mph), it will become a tropical depression. The stage of tropical storm occurs when the winds are between 35 and 64 knots (40 to 74 mph). Once the speeds of the winds exceed 64 knots or 74 miles per hour then the tropical storm becomes classified as a hurricane and then it will recieve its name. Once it hits a patch of colder water then the hurricane will become weaker but it is hard to predict when it will happen because its to dangerous to get too close to the eye of the hurricane. The eye of the hurricane is the very middle of the hurricane where you can see right through the hurricane from top to bottom.
Naming of Hurricanes
At first Hurricanes were only named by where they were according to their longitude and latitude coordinates. Then during World War II, they were starting to be named like a company of men in the army such as Able or Baker with each letter in the alphabet. Then from 1953 to 1977 they were only named after females. In 1978 Hurricanes started to be named after men's names also and each hurricane named has alternated from a female name to a male name and back and forth for every letter in the alphabet since '78.They are not named only after english names, they also named after French and Spanish names as well. If there are more tropical storms or hurricanes in one year than there are letters in the alphabet, the people who name hurricanes start to name them after letters in the Greek alphabet such as Alpha, Gamma, and Omega. If that happens during hurricane season, the reasoning for that is that there have been more than 26 tropical storms and hurricanes in that one season. Due to their certain limitations of how and where they occur, Hurricanes are an act of nature that is to be taken seriously.
Hurricane Katrina
When they gain enough speed and force, they are not friendly at all as the people of New Orleans, Louissiana know. With Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it had started in the Atalantic Ocean. Over time, it started to move north towards America and the dozens of tropical islands in the caribbean. Once it had barely reached the southern most tip of Florida and over Cuba it started to curve towards the Gulf of Mexico like it was going to go there to die out. But once it had hit the Gulf of Mexico instead of slowing down and dieing out it chose to gain steam and become more destructive. After that is when the unexpected came. It's path suddenly changed again and chose to move up towards to Louissiana with the most destructive part hitting New Orleans and the surrounding areas. After it hit New Orleans, it went further north and died out north of Louissiana, Hurricane Katrina caused an estimated $108 billion in damages with 1,833 dead. It hit three different countries, America, Cuba and the Bahamas, and hit at least five different states with the most damage coming the greater New Orleans area.
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS361US362&biw=1385&bih=784&tbm=isch&tbnid=vmzne-jOz-5_NM:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Katrina_in_New_Orleans&docid=6yD-cYV_rPY92M&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Navy_flooded_New_Orleans_20050901_trim.jpg/250px-Navy_flooded_New_Orleans_20050901_trim.jpg&w=250&h=176&ei=sHfETryAJaemiQL4iuHVBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=793&vpy=165&dur=569&hovh=140&hovw=200&tx=93&ty=99&sig=105542694726307034037&page=1&tbnh=127&tbnw=168&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS361US362&biw=1385&bih=784&tbm=isch&tbnid=IzVw7n7fcGRcYM:&imgrefurl=http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/&docid=Rps89gUmkgzsRM&imgurl=http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/images/katrina-08-28-2005.jpg&w=1920&h=1200&ei=sHfETryAJaemiQL4iuHVBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=130&sig=105542694726307034037&page=1&tbnh=105&tbnw=168&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=93&ty=43
No comments:
Post a Comment