Courtney Moody

From GeoClasses

1 HURRICANES
2 Stages of Development
3 Movement of Hurricanes
4 Damage
5 Hurricane Hits Home!
6 References

HURRICANES

Audio recording of paper: Media:moody.wav

Hurricanes are tropical cyclones that have winds exceeding seventy-four miles per hour. They circulate counterclockwise about their centers in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Hurricanes are formed by clusters of thunderstorms that grow to hurricane strength with help from the ocean and the atmosphere. In order for this to occur, the ocean water must be warmer than 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The continued heat and moisture from the warm water will continue to fuel the hurricane. Once the hurricane travels over land or colder ocean waters, it will begin to dissipate due to the insufficient amount of heat and moisture.

Relative humidity is another key factor in producing hurricanes. High relative humidities in the lower and middle troposphere are required for hurricane development. The high humidity reduces the amount of evaporation in clouds and maximizes the latent heat that is released due to more precipitation. The concentration of the latent heat is essential to driving the system. Another important factor is wind shear. Wind shear is the amount of change in the wind’s direction or speed with increasing altitude. If the wind shear is weak, the storms grow vertically and the latent heat from condensation is released into the air directly above the storm, aiding in development. When there is stronger wind shear, the storms become more slanted and the latent heat release is scattered over a much larger area.

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Stages of Development

Hurricanes are similar to humans in the fact that they go through a life cycle from birth to death. Hurricanes can live for as long as two to three weeks. They may begin as a cluster of thunderstorms over the ocean and become a tropical depression. It may take as little as half a day to as much as a couple of days for it to become a tropical storm, and the same for it to become a hurricane. The depression may not change to a tropical storm or the tropical storm to a hurricane at all; it all depends on the atmospheric and oceanic conditions that are present.

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Movement of Hurricanes

Once the hurricane has developed, its path can be traced. The path depends heavily on the wind belt in which it is located. For example, a hurricane that developed in the Atlantic Ocean is driven westward by the easterly trade winds. Eventually, the storms will turn northwestward around the subtropical high and move into higher latitudes. This is the reason that the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the United States experience at least one or more hurricanes each year. As time goes on, hurricanes move into the middle latitudes and are driven northeastward by the westerlies.

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Damage

Hurricanes are rated by their intensity in wind speed according to the Saffir-Simpson scale. This scales ranges from categories 1 to 5 with 5 being the most destructive. With the right atmospheric conditions, hurricanes can sustain themselves for as long as a couple of weeks before reaching cooler water and land and weakening. Although they weaken once they hit land, they are still destructive and can cause lots of damage. In fact, most of the damage caused to man and nature occurs once the hurricane makes landfall. Hurricanes are responsible for causing strong winds, flooding, tornadoes, rip tides, and storm surges that can cause damages to homes, nature, and even death.

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Hurricane Hits Home!

In August of 2005, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast were hit hard by hurricane Katrina. Katrina left many families in New Orleans with material losses, family losses, and nowhere to go. Xavier University in New Orleans had several displaced students who were forced to transfer to The University of Memphis due to Katrina. One of these students was Willis Osborne. Looking back on the incident, Willis says that he recalls all of the warnings they had received that Katrina was coming. “There were several warnings and there always is. We had evacuated so many times before and nothing happened and because of this, many did not take the warning serious and were not able to save themselves.” When asked about his losses and what he misses most, Willis had this to say, “Memphis is a cool place to live, but there is nothing like New Orleans. I can recall saying that I would never live anywhere else and really did not know what it was like outside of New Orleans. Now, I have had to adapt to a new area and a new culture, but I have done so quickly. I lost a lot of material possessions including my house to Katrina, but I still have my family and that is most important. I urge all of you to become educated about things like this and take heed to any of the warnings in any situation.” We can only imagine what Katrina was like, but for students like Willis Osborne, they were forced to live it.