hurricane
Satellites provide invaluable information about the cloud and wind patterns of entire weather systems. This satellite picture, taken in 1969, shows a cyclonic storm, or hurricane, off Hawaii. Tropical cyclones begin in the hot, moist air over tropical oceans. As an area of very low pressure develops, air is sucked in, creating a violent storm of spiralling winds.
In 1957, Hurricane Audrey devastated this area of the southern USA.
The eye of typhoon Odessa, seen from the NASA space shuttle. Odessa had one of the strongest circular storm patterns ever seen by shuttle crews, and a very tightly formed eye. The tighter the eye in a circular storm, the stronger the winds underneath.
Hurricane Andrew reached the coastline of Florida just north of Miami in late August 1992, and caused considerable damage. Entire walls were stripped from the facades of apartment blocks, at the height of the tourist season. Nonetheless, the state of Florida is accustomed to hurricanes, and every county has contingency plans to deal competently with such emergencies.
Hurricane Andrew hurtles northwest over the Florida coastline in August 1992, its spiral shape evident in this infrared satellite photo. Like water draining through an outlet, hurricanes spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern – a manifestation of the Coriolis effect.
Hurricanes produce winds of fearsome speed and force: here a plank from a boardwalk has been driven right through the trunk of a royal palm at some height above the ground. As the hurricane passes over, the wind appears to change direction and may finally blow with no reduction at all in strength from the entirely opposite direction.
A computer-generated image of Hurricane Fran (August 1989) compiled using data from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).
Hurricanes, also called typhoons, are violent tropical cyclones. The calm centre of the hurricane, known as the ‘eye of the storm’, is encircled by inwardly spiralling high winds.
A severe depression (region of very low atmospheric pressure) in tropical regions, called typhoon in the North Pacific. It is a revolving storm originating at latitudes between 5° and 20° north or south of the Equator, when the surface temperature of the ocean is above 27°C/80°F. A central calm area, called the eye, is surrounded by inwardly spiralling winds (anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere) of up to 320 kph/200 mph. A hurricane is accompanied by lightning and torrential rain, and can cause extensive damage. In meteorology, a hurricane is a wind of force 12 or more on the Beaufort scale.
During 1995 the Atlantic Ocean region suffered 19 tropical storms, 11 of them hurricanes. This was the third-worst season since 1871, causing 137 deaths. The most intense hurricane recorded in the Caribbean/Atlantic sector was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, with sustained winds of 280 kph/175 mph and gusts of over 320 kph/200 mph.
| The naming of hurricanes began in the 1940s with female names. Owing to public opinion that using female names was sexist, the practice was changed in 1978 to using both male and female names alternately. |
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