Inside Hurricanes By Mary Kay Carson

Hurricanes are “long-lasting ocean storms with spinning clouds full of rain and wind. They are the largest storms on the planet. Hurricane winds can blow buildings over, topple trees, and toss boats into the air.” according to Inside Hurricanes by Mary Kay Carson. According to Weather Wiz Kids “each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean.” Hurricanes “don’t happen in an instant, like a tornado or a lighting strike. A storm only grows into a hurricane if all the right ingredients come together,” according to Mary Kay Carson the author of Inside Hurricanes. Hurricanes need heat and the correct kinds of winds to grow and create a powerful storm. According to Inside Hurricanes by Mary Kay Carson, in a hurricane there is an “eye, eyewall, rainbands, sinking cool air, and rising warm air. The eye of a hurricane is usually between 20-40 miles across and has no clouds overhead.

It’s a long tube of calm all the way to the sea.

The eyewall is a ring of tall thunderstorms that surrounds the eye. The fiercest winds are here -- up to 112 mph with gusts up to 189 mph. The rainbands are these curved bands are packed with thunderstorm clouds. They can reach hundreds of miles from the eye and produce rain, lighting, and, sometimes, tornadoes.” The Saffir-Simpson Scale shows you the intensity of the hurricane. According to Inside Hurricanes by Mary Kay Carson, “Category 1 is the weakest of the 5 categories and has wind speeds ranging from 74-95 miles per hour. Category 2 wind speeds range from 96-110 miles per hour. Category 3 has wind speeds ranging 111-130 miles per hour. The wind speeds in Category 4 range from 131-155 miles per hour. Category 5 is the strongest which have winds speeds that reach up to 156 and above miles per hour.” When it comes to hurricanes everyone wants you to be as safe as possible, so there is two things that you should be on alert for; they are hurricane watches and hurricane

warnings. Mary Kay Carson explained the difference between the two in her book Inside Hurricanes; a hurricane watch is “a tropical storm or hurricane conditions are possible within 36 hours, while a hurricane warning is “a tropical storm or hurricane conditions are expected in 24 hours or less.” As you can tell hurricanes are very dangerous storms that can reach up to a Category 5 storm within the matter of hours just because of heat and winds, be sure to listen for those hurricane watches and warnings.
An example of a Hurricane that was marked as a Category 5 hurricane at landfall, this hurricane is Hurricane Andrew. According to Mary Kay Carson the author of Inside Hurricanes, “Andrew occured on August 24, 1992 in Southern Florida.” Andrew was bad; 26 people were recorded dead. Andrew was the “fourth strongest U.S. hurricane ever. It was rated a Category 4 hurricane back in 1992 but was upgraded to a Category 5 after ten years” (Carson 26). Andrew’s “winds were tornado strength. Gusts topped 200 mph” (Carson 26). According to Mary Kay Carson author of Inside Hurricanes, “Andrew crushed thousands of mobile homes like cans. Its winds buzz-sawed through buildings. Boats were sucked off docks and thrown into backyards hundreds of feet away.” The people of Southern Florida were hiding in their bathtubs and under their beds to keep cover. Hurricane Andrew destroyed Florida homes and everything was just a pile of garbage afterwards. Not all hurricanes are like Hurricane Andrew but another one like Andrew could come in the future, we just have to be prepared and look out for the hurricane watches and warnings that our news channels give us and listen to them.