What are Hurricanes?
"A tropical cyclone is a storm system chracterized by a large low pressure centre which causes strong winds and heavy rain".
Tropical cyclones are known as different names depending on their location and strength. Tropical Cyclones are generally classed as Hurricanes when the storm has winds over 74mph.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f45jA5UxB0
The video above is a short summary of how Hurricanes form so lets summarize the key points below:
The requirements for a Hurricane:
2) Moist air and converging equatorial winds
The majority of Hurricanes form in tropical regions due to the two requirements above. They generally begin life as thunderstorms and as they move over warm tropical ocean waters they pick up speed and power. Wind speed is gained as cooler air rushes underneath the warm rising air increasing and as this wind is subject to the coriolis effect it starts spinning. Incoming winds increase the power of the Hurricane and direct its course.
Hurricane classification:
Just like most other natural disasters Hurricanes have a classification depending on wind speed and the height of the storm surge. The categories also include levels of damage that are likely to be experienced for a hurricane of that intensity
So in this post we have covered what Hurricanes are, how they form and on what system they are classified on. Part 2 will be a case study as this was always a big part of my Geography learning and i think its important to be able to apply any learning into real life situations.
The post will cover where and when Hurricanes occur and look in particular at the causes and consequences of Hurricane Katrina.
Some Hurricane facts to end on....
- Australians call hurricanes, willy-willies.
- Every second, a large hurricane releases the energy of 10 atomic bombs (If my sources are correct!)
- Hurricanes didn't start having boys' names until 1979. The first name being Hurricane Bob
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