Hurricanes

What is a hurricane?

Hurricanes are very large, swirling storms with very low pressure at their center.

Hurricanes can be up to 600 miles wide and have winds of 75 to 200 mph.

Evaporation from warm sea water increases their power.

What is evaporation?

The Eye

Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise around an eye.

The eye has only light winds and fair weather.

When hurricanes come onto land they cause a lot of damage to buildings, trees, and cars.

Storm Surge

Storm surges cause a lot of destruction especially where there is a shallow-water coastline. STORM SURGE VIDEO

Hurricane Season The Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 to

November 30, but most hurricanes occur during the fall months. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season is from May 15 to November 30.

Naming Hurricanes

The World Meteorological Organization uses different sets of names depending on the part of the world the storm is in.

Around the U.S., only women's names were used until 1979. Then it was decided that they should alternate a list that included men's names too.

There's 6 different name lists that alternate each year. If a hurricane does significant damage, its name is retired and replaced with another.

In 2009 the names will be…

AnaBillClaudetteDannyErikaFredGraceHenriIdaJoaquinKateLarryMindyNicholasOdettePeterRoseSamTeresaVictorWanda

Hurricane Paths for 2005

Categorizing Hurricanes-VIDEOCategory 1 74-95 mph winds Least amount of

damage

Category 2 96-110 mph winds Will rip shingles off of roofs

Category 3 111-130 mph winds Blows down trees, destroys mobile homes

Category 4 131-155 mph winds Extensive damage, high chance of flooding

Category 5 156+ mph winds Small buildings are overturned or blown away