Hurricane season began on June 1 and continues though Nov. 30. Weather experts watch storm formations over the Atlantic Ocean. Many tropical depressions will form and a few will turn into hurricanes. This year promises to be a busy season.
These storms pack a real punch, causing the ocean to surge, creating flooding rains and winds that can reach more than 150 miles per hour.
A hurricane has three parts:
Eye – the low-pressure calm center of the storm
Eye Wall – the area around the eye with the most violent winds
Rain Bands – thunderstorms circulating from the eye that feed the condensation and evaporation cycle that powers the storm.
Hurricanes start out as tropical depressions far away from land. They form over the warm ocean waters near the equator. Warm, moist air from the ocean’s surface begins to rise. As it does, it cools and forms rain droplets and storm clouds. The rising air below is replaced by more humid air from the ocean’s surface. As this cycle of evaporation and condensation continues, winds swirl in different directions, combining with the rising ocean air. The storm grows into the familiar white swirl pattern you’ve seen on TV. This can take a few hours or several days.
As many of 100 of these systems can form during hurricane season, but only about 10 will develop into tropical storms. These are not dangerous – until they hit land.
A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm when its winds reach a dangerous 39 miles per hour or more. Though not as destructive as hurricanes, tropical storms can still flip over trucks, destroy buildings and topple trees.
Once a tropical storm’s winds hit 74 mile per hour or better, the storm takes a cyclone shape and officially becomes a hurricane.
Hurricanes are classified in categories from one to five, depending on the storm’s strength. A category five is the strongest and has the most potential to do the greatest amount of damage to land, property and human life.
The areas hardest hit by hurricanes are the Caribbean islands and the southeast coast of the U.S. bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Southern Florida gets a lion’s share of hurricanes.
Though New York rarely takes a direct hit from a hurricane, we sometimes get tail effects like heavy rain and flooding – the major cause of death and destruction. These storms do most of their damage further south and lose strength by the time they head north and out to sea. However, in 1938, a Category 3 storm hit Long Island. High winds hit New England and the heavy rains caused river flooding in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Six hundred people were killed.
What’s in a name?
Our word “hurricane” is similar to words used by other cultures to describe these violent and deadly storms. Hurakan is the name of a Mayan god that blew his breath over the water. Hurrican is the name of an ancient evil Caribbean god.
With as many as 100 tropical storms forming during hurricane season, naming them is necessary to keep track of them. Both male and female names are used. If a storm has been especially deadly, its name is retired and not used again. Deadly storm names Agnes, Hazel, Andrew, Camille, Gloria and Katrina are retired.
The deadliest hurricane in U.S. history was an unnamed Category 4 storm that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. It killed 8,000 people.
On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and devastated parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. New Orleans was especially hard hit as its fragile levee system failed, completely flooding parts of the city. Thousands of residents are still without homes. It was the nation’s costliest natural disaster at more than $81 billion in damages.
2008 Hurricane Names:
Arthur Hanna Omar
Bertha Ike Paloma
Christobal Josephine Rene
Dolly Kyle Sally
Edouard Laura Teddy
Fay Marco Vicky
Gustav Nana Wilfred
New York Post Activities
Check the weather page of today’s Post for information on Hurricanes or tropical storms.
Create a hurricane safety check list. How would you prepare yourself if you were caught in a hurricane?
Use the Internet or an encyclopedia to learn more about tropical storms and hurricanes.
Today’s lesson fulfills the following New York standards: E1c, E3c, E3d, Science S3c, S4a, S6a.