Hurricanes!

Miona Milenkvic

Mrs.M

7A Science

2nd June 2012

Hurricane Essay

Hurricanes are huge thunderstorms. "They create winds which can be up to 119 kilometers per hour (74 mph) or higher. That's even faster than a cheetah, and they are the fastest animal on land." The huge winds from a hurricane can break down buildings and even take out trees out from the ground. When a hurricane begins, weather forecasters can tell where and when it will be at a certain time. They also predict its strongest and weakest points. This information can prevent deaths since it gives people time to prepare for the hurricane which are coming up. There are many different parts of a hurricane. First there is the Eye. It is the small blue circle in the middle of the hurricane. In that part of the hurricane the winds are usually not as strong and with not as many clouds and storms. Next is the Eye wall. It is a huge cycle of different storms. All the storms go around the eye. The winds have the most power and very rainy in that area as well. Lastly are the Rain bands. They are groups of many clouds and a lot of rain which go around the eye walls.

"How do hurricanes form, maybe when Mother Nature gets angry?" I know that is what you have been hoping for and constantly saying in your brain, however that is really not the case. The real reason why is because they desperately need warm water, humidity, moist air, winds, and quite warm surface temperature. During summer and fall is the best time during the year for a hurricane to develop. The first sign of a hurricane are a group of a lot but small thunderstorms. Afterwards, they will become more "organized". Three specific things have to happen for a hurricane to be created. A vaporization and condensation cycle, different wind patterns and a very small difference in air pressure between the slow and high altitude.

Hurricanes can only happen in a large area of warm water like an ocean or sea. This is because of the fact that they need a large amount of energy which they get from the warm ocean waters. Hurricanes can occur a couple degrees away from the equator. This is because the coriolis effect does not have enough power at the equator to cause a hurricane.

Hurricanes can cause so many disasters in just one place and during only one time. Storm surge is the worse disaster it can cause. Storm surge is huge wall of water that moves towards the shore with the hurricane. Out of all deaths caused by hurricanes, 90 percent is because of storm surge. High Winds is the most common disaster of all hurricanes because it shows how strong the hurricane is. Winds in a hurricanes can be as high as 200 mph and even higher. Lastly, very heavy rain and flooding. After the rain from the hurricane and when the winds stop, the huge amount of flooding is a disaster.

Even though hurricanes can take away many lives from other people,destroy someones property which will later have to be rebuilt, they can also be important to a lot of needed rain regions and provide water to very dry regions. Hurricanes can sometimes give rain and water to the Southwestern United States and parts of western Mexico. Also, Japan got even more than half of the rain and water from hurricanes.
However, apart from that, hurricanes still do kill and take away our houses, and as you know, destroying, leads to rebuilding.

As you all know, all hurricanes have a special name for them, they are not just given randomly, there is a reason. There can be more than one hurricane at once on the planet, of course. To be able to keep track and talk about all of them, they are given different names in alphabetical order. A normal storm cannot be given a name, only hurricanes get their own. Every single year, each hurricane is given a name. In total 6 lists of names in alphabetical order exist, one for each year. All the lists are used again every six years. If a storm causes too much destruction, they can sometimes erase it from a list. However it doesnt stay without a name, it is given a new name with the same starting letter.

As surprising as this must seem, all the dust storms from Africa and other countries can affect hurricanes as well? I bet you didn't know that. There are 2 NASA satellites in space which sees how dust affects hurricanes. Scientists are able to do many crazy things, even fly airplanes into hurricanes, can you believe it!  Some areas in the hurricane are not safe for people to fly into or above. However they can still collect the data, they fly out airplanes in hurricanes but without humans in it. Scientists study hurricanes in many ways. One way of studying hurricanes is through a bunch of photos which are taken from outer space with outer space satellites like the hubble. Some other satellites can even estimate the height of clouds and the temperature of the ocean. Others measure the the speed of how the rain is falling from the hurricane. But others measure the speed and direction of winds as well. Scientists use the data they collect from these satellites to understand hurricanes much better. The data can help them in many ways. It helps understand how hurricanes work and how they are formed.Another way it helps is because they can know where and when the hurricane will occur, with that, people have time to prepare and prevent death.

Bibliography:

"HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS." NOAA. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012.

     ?n=hurrweb>.

"Hurricane Facts." The Weather Around Us. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012. 

     Thematic%20Units/The%20Weather%20Around%20Us/hurricane_facts.htm>. 

"Tropical cyclone." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2012. 

     Tropical_cyclone>.