by Christyl Rivers

Created on: January 04, 2011

Hurricanes are moisture sucking whirlwinds, born at sea, and carrying a destructive wallop of whipping wind and water to dump upon coastal islands and towns.  In other parts of the world, the words Typhoon and Cyclone are preferred, but over all the word hurricane, from the dark and destructive god Hurakan, is becoming the most often used name of these giant storms.  Katrina is only the latest and greatest of such storms in the USA.

Hurricanes form when sea water heats and then meets cooler air.  The ocean surface must rise to such a degree (over 80 degrees F.) that it is swept up and collected into winds that begin to spin.  In northern hemispheres they move counter clockwise, and in southern hemispheres they move clockwise, in keeping with the rotation of the earth.

The life cycle of a hurricane consists of 1, heating ocean surface, 2, air pressure collision, 3, collection of moisture from water surface, and 4, spiraling all into a swirling massive storm which moves toward shorelines. Then, in its final act, 5, the hurricane hits cooler land temperatures and breaks up unable to feed off the heat and moisture any further.The life cycle is one of collecting more and more moisture, whipping it upward, and forming vast and swirling clouds that spin ever faster around the calmer "eye." 

The relatively calm, eye of the storm can be thought of as the center around which all movement takes place. The eye of the hurricane may be up to thirty miles wide, but it is small compared to the surrounding wall of circulating wind and water that can cover up to 650 miles across.  As the storm hits land it generally begins to break up as the heat needed to sustain its force is drastically lost.

In the mid Atlantic this means the storms usually make land fall seasonally upon the coasts of the eastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico, often hitting north and central America with extreme ferocity.  Here in the U.S, our Hurricane season is late summer until the end of fall.

This immense amount of moisture can bring waves up to 50 feet high, and solid walls of flooding rain that are dumped dramatically upon coasts. Scientists are actively investigating what part of increased ocean heat is caused by human activity. The latest conclusion is not that hurricanes are necessarily caused by global warming, or climate change, but that their severity is dramatically increased due to the excess heat they move about.  Increased ocean temperatures

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>