by Douglas Black

Created on: March 31, 2008

It has become apparent that recent climate changes are contributing to more severe storm systems, but none can be more devastating or costly than the fury of a hurricane. These massive slow moving storm systems have the potential to cause severe damage from both the sustained wind velocity, and the more devastating element known as the storm surge. Some would compare a hurricane to a tornado or many other cyclonic storms, but a hurricane is unique, and it is defined by specific components that make up the monster of all storms the Hurricane!

What is a Hurricane?

A hurricane is a massive storm system that can contain sustained winds of an extreme velocity. Hurricanes or tropical cyclones can span as far 600 miles across, and travel at a sluggish pace of 10-20mph when traveling over a wide body of water. Hurricanes like tornadoes do harvest powerful and damaging winds, but are uniquely separate in the way that they are formed. I recommend checking out a satellite image to fully understand what a hurricane looks like, because to the naked eye it does not appear any more different than a severe thunderstorm.

Nuts and Bolts:

Hurricanes can be classified as a tropical storm, but with specific added meteorological conditions that produce a significant rotational affect. These storms gather heat and energy through direct contact with warmer ocean waters, which fuels the counter-clockwise rotation. As the tropical storm passes over a body of open water with the temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or more, it can consume the released humid air as it rises up, which fuels the process that causes the vapor to condense.

All hurricanes or cyclones have properties proportional to low atmospheric pressure nearest to the surface. The classification of hurricanes is dependent on the amount of vapor that is being condensed, which distributes heat vertically around the storm. Physical forces such as the rotation and gravitational pull of the Earth, all contribute to causing the circular spinning known as the Coriolis effect, which also determines the trajectory of travel. Most cyclones or tropical storms are driven into hurricane proportions by the deep convection that is constantly fueled by the warmer temperatures in the water.

Hurricanes are also made up of bands of rain and thunderstorms that spin cyclonicly toward the center, which is called the "eye". Strangely enough it is not uncommon for periods of calm to occur between these layers or bands of rain, and even tornadoes are

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