Hurricane Tracking Activity

Questions:

1.            What is the correlation between wind speed and pressure of a hurricane? POSSIBLE ANSWER: Wind speed in a hurricane is a direct relationship to surface pressure. The graph created shows the relationship between surface pressure and sustained wind speed as a causal linear relationship.

2.            What difference does the timing of the tide make on the damage done by a hurricane? POSSIBLE ANSWER: If the tide is out when the hurricane hits land, the storm surge will be lower than if the tide is in when the hurricane hits. Conversely if the tide is high when the hurricane hits land, the storm surge will be increased and the possibility of an increase in damage also increases.

3.            Describe the types of damage that would happen if a hurricane with an intensity of 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale hit Mobile. POSSIBLE ANSWER: A category 3 hurricane has winds of 111-129 mph. According to the National Hurricane Center, “Devastating damage will occur: Well-built framed homes may incur major damage or removal of roof decking and gable ends. Many trees will be snapped or uprooted, blocking numerous roads. Electricity and water will be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes.”   https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php

4.            What three things must occur for a hurricane to get stronger? POSSIBLE ANSWER: (1) Ocean surface temperatures warmer than 79 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) (2) Low vertical wind shear (3) Warm moist air and a 4^th condition could possibly be (4) Ocean area along the projected storm track

5.            What time of year do most Atlantic hurricanes form? POSSIBLE ANSWER: June 1 to November 30 is hurricane season with the peak of the season being from mid-August to late October. However, deadly hurricanes can occur anytime in the hurricane season.

6.            Where do Atlantic hurricanes form? POSSIBLE ANSWER: Hurricanes can form in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the tropical Atlantic Ocean as far east as the Cape Verde Islands. The role the Sahara Desert plays in hurricane development is related to the easterly winds (coming from the east) generated from the differences between the hot, dry desert in north Africa and the cooler, wetter, and forested coastal environment directly south in west Africa. The result is a strong area of high altitude winds commonly called the African Easterly Jet. Throughout most of the year, these waves typically form every two to three days in a region near Cape Verde (due west of Africa), but in the summer to early fall is when conditions become favorable for tropical cyclone development. Not all hurricanes that form in the Atlantic originate near Cape Verde, but most of the major hurricanes that have impacted the continental United States have originated from this area.

7.            Why causes a hurricane to die out? POSSIBLE ANSWER: A hurricane dies down when it loses its energy source, which is usually warm water at the surface of the ocean. This loss of energy can occur as a hurricane passes over cooler water or over a land mass.  If no further energy is fed into the hurricane it will weaken and die.

8.           What can be predicted about future hurricanes based on previous hurricane patterns and trends (think: water temperature, wind patterns, humidity, pressure, etc.…)? POSSIBLE ANSWER: Every year around April the meteorologists start talking about how many named storms are predicted for the season and how many hurricanes are expected to make landfall.  Scientists can predict the number of named storms and their breakdown by intensity (i.e. the number of hurricanes, tropical storms, intense hurricanes, etc.).  They can also predict approximate wind speeds and intensity for sustained winds.  These can be easily calculated using elementary statistics.  Compared to past seasons, the sustained wind speed follows the Poisson distribution with fairly consistent accuracy.  Named storms are typically predicted based on past occurrences and current measures of factors in the climate.  At the beginning of the season these are only labeled as probabilities.