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Natural Disasters
This being my senior project I wanted to look at a topic that I found interesting. Even though I find most topics in the fields interesting, none catch my attention better than natural disasters. I have always found disasters intriguing and have wanted to know more about them. The disaster that I found most interesting were Hurricanes. The thought of those storms with their power gives me the chills. Ever since I was in the middle of Hurricane Bob when I was vacationing with my family off the coast of Virginia and we were asked by the state police to evacuate our house, I wanted to learn more about hurricanes.
Since that I have been able to take classes that enabled me to learn more about hurricanes. That is why I have decided to take the focus of my paper towards hurricanes. Furthermore, I am going to look at the economical affects that hurricanes have on the United States. There are many reasons why I chose to use this variable. The main reason is I couldn't think of another topic that fit into e veryone's lives and had an effect on everyone.
The hurricane year is broken up into two seasons. They are referred to as early season and late season. The early season starts June first and runs to
September 10. The late season starts on September 10 and runs to the end of
November. The date of September 10 is the midway point between the two seasons.
This is the date that separates early season from late season. This leads me to what my research was about. I am writing about the differences between early season and late season hurricanes and how they effect the variable that were mentioned earlier in the paper. I feel that late season hurricanes cause more economic loss than early season hurricanes.
I will start by taking about what a hurricane is and how they are formed.
Then I will discuss where they are formed in relation to the seasons and why in these places. Next I will talk about the paths that these hurricanes take in regards to the seasons. Then I will compare storms of each season from different years starting in 1988 and ending in 1995. Next I will give a brief history about some of the biggest storms to ever hit and how they compare to the window of years I researched. The data from all the years storms in terms of loss of both variables will come next followed by the rea...
... middle of paper ...
...; Another reason that the late season had more damage was the season had more hurricanes and also had more that touched on land. One of the largest early season hurricanes was Felix of 1995. It never hit land. The average landfall category for early season (excluding Andrew) was 1.8. The average for the late season was 2.6( Purdue). Many more hurricanes that are not significant brought this number down, but because there were so many, it averaged out.
After looking at all of the data, I feel that I am not completely right about my theory, but found some good solid evidence. The biggest problem with the project is that it is very hard to predict the climatic patterns of the
Earth. If it was easy, my project would have come out one hundred percent. I am pleased with the work that I have done and was happy to research the material. I enjoyed learning about hurricanes and how they work. I feel that most major hurricanes fall in the late season and that they take one of the two major tracks. This causes more economical damage than if it were to follow the other track in the early season. I hope someday the climate will be much easier to
predict.
Hurricanes are formed over tropical waters. These intense storms consist of winds over 74 miles per hour (Ahrens & Sampson, 2011). The storms addressed here are Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. This paper will explore the contrasts and comparisons between these two horrific storms.
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore). It is truly one of hurricane lore’s greatest of storms.
The birth of a hurricane requires at least three conditions. First, the ocean waters must be warm enough at the surface to put enough heat and moisture into the overlying atmosphere to provide the potential fuel for the thermodynamic engine that a hurricane becomes. Second, atmospheric moisture from seawater evaporation must combine with that heat and energy to form the powerful engine needed to propel a hurricane. Third, a wind pattern must be near the ocean surface to spirals air inward. At least 3 conditions must be present for a hurricane to emerge. Water, heat, and wind are the three main factors that have to be in perfect conditions to start a hurricane. (The Weather Channel, 2008)
Hurricanes are extremely large area’s of low pressure that are over the ocean in either the North Atlantic ocean, or the eastern North Pacific Ocean. If a hurricane is in the western Pacific Ocean than it is called a typhoon. One in the Indian Ocean is called a cyclone. The danger region of a hurricane is normally in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane season is the six month time period from June-November. The peak month of hurricanes is September.
Hurricanes are born over the warm waters of tropical oceans and are formed by a low-pressure system caused by the heating of water. The heat causes the air to rise and form lower pressures in a feedback loop, making the hurricane stronger. Heavy rain results from a condensation of water and strong winds develop from warm air rushing to the eye of the hurricane. Essentially, greater storms and winds occur when the hurricane feeds of the rising temperature of the water. In addition, researchers studied disturbances and intense thunderstorms in the atmosphere over Western Africa and believe they are partly to blame for extreme hurricanes affecting the United States and Canada. While these are all the main ingredients of a perfectly natural process, they were not the primary causes of the damage done by Hurricane
Hurricanes, also known as cyclones or typhoons, are huge, devastating tropical storms that can be up to 600 miles wide. They have strong, forceful winds that spiral inward and upward circling around the “eye” of the storm. Inside the eye, there are clear skies and light winds, however, surrounding the eye wall there are bands of wind and rain that spread out for over hundreds or thousands of miles. Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances over warm ocean water (27°c or 80°F) and gathers heat and energy as it moves across the ocean. As evaporation from the ocean water increases its power, it changes into a tropical depression (wind speeds of less than 38 mph), then tropical storm (wind speeds of 39-73 mph) to finally a hurricane (wind speeds greater than 75mph). Hurricanes can last two weeks or more over open water and moves about 10-20 miles per hour. The safety of millions of people depends on the meteorologists and their ability to track these storms. Hurricanes may not be dangerous over open water, but are devastating when they hit land. They can cause torrential rains, high winds and storm surges as well as tornadoes, flash floods and land slides. Without warning of these hurricanes approaching, millions could die. The most effective tools meteorologists use are satellite images, radar and aircraft reconnaissance to study and warn people of approaching hurricanes.
According to the “ The handy weather answer book” by Kevin Hile a hurricane is defined as a tropical storm formed in the Atlantic Basin. Winds reach speeds of 74 miles per hour or more. Frequently, hurricanes occur during the months of summer. This allows energy to build from the warm surface of the ocean. Wind speeds, clouds, and the Coriolis effect all contribute to the formation of a hurricane (123). Hurricanes produce fierce winds. Nonetheless, it is the water that creates the most harm. “They can raise tides as high as 20 feet, and dump as much as 20 inches of rain inland,” (Douglas, 107). In fact, the development of Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina caused a tremendous amount of destruction to the Untied States. Analyzing both of these hurricanes will allow a better understanding of the damage they caused. Comparing occurrence of the event, the intensity, and damage. Examining the differences will display how unique each hurricanes are and the danger they bring.
This paper gives us information about “Hurricane Sandy”. It is known as “Super storm Sandy”, off the record. It was the most disastrous hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season along with being the second hurricane that created financial crisis in United States history. In 1953, the National Weather Service started naming the storms after women. As a matter of fact, there are six lists of names for naming storms in the Atlantic. It was the eighteenth storm in the list, tenth hurricane and second large hurricane of the year 2012. It was a Category 3 storm according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, when it made landfall in Cuba. While it was a Category 2 storm off the coast of the Northeastern United States, the storm became the biggest Atlantic hurricane enlisted (according to diameter, with winds ranging 1,100 miles (1,800 km)).
One obvious reason that this hurricane was so devastating was due to weather patterns. Harvey was originally just a tropical storm, but jumped from a category
For nearly ten years, Miami has not seen hurricane landfall. This fact may be troubling to those who are inclined to believe, whether through superstition or scientific knowledge, that one is bound to occur anytime now It may be pleasing news for those who have not had to suffer the destruction of these weather-beasts in ten years. Nostalgia, however, is my overwhelming reaction to the topic of hurricanes. I am taken back to candle-lit evenings tinged a mixture two parts electric fear one part mystic coziness.
Hurricanes are powerful and destructive storms that involve great rain and wind. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the floodings that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially beg...
Hurricanes are one of the deadliest and most expensive natural disasters around. They are more common in areas of humid yet moist weather so they are very foreign to certain places. But to the places were hurricanes are the norm, the people take them extremely seriously because they kill people and ruin countless amounts of property. Hurricanes can attack and harm people in so many ways they can kill people, leave them homeless, it leaves children orphaned and disable them. On the west coast of the United States and other places hurricanes aren’t taken as seriously as other more common disasters, such as, earthquakes and volcanoes yet the hurricane can be a lot more damaging that both of those. Hurricanes are cyclones that develop over warm oceans and breed winds that blow yup to 74 miles per hour.
Hurricanes originate as tropical disturbances over warm oceans with trade winds. The tropical turbances intensify into tropical depressions, and eventually into a tropical storm. They only originate in the tropical trade winds because the ocean temperatures are quite warm there. Powered from the heat that the sea gives off, they are steered by the east trade winds and the temperate west ones, as well as by their own ferocious energy. Around their core, winds grow with a tremendous amount of velocity creating violent seas. As they move toward the shore, they move the ocean inward, while spawning tornadoes and producing torrential rains and floods.
Tufty, Barbara; 1001 Questions Answered about Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Other Natural Air Disasters; Dover Publications, Incorporated, August 1987