PEEK A BOO

 A hurricane is a huge storm, that generally forms over warm ocean waters near the equator.
 The warm air above the ocean rises upward, thus creating an area of low pressure below.
 Air from the surrounding areas push in and try to fill the area with low air pressure.
 Which now becomes warm and moist, and rises too.
 As the moist air rises, the surrounding air again, tries to fill in. And this process continues, till the
water in the air forms clouds.
 Soon the clouds and winds spin around fueled by the oceans heat and water vapor.
 Therefore, hurricanes could be also be called Giant Engines that use warm and moist air as their
fuel.
 When we see from the top, hurricanes can be as huge as 300 miles wide.
 The center of the hurricane is called “The Eye” of the hurricane which is the calmest part.
 The ”Eye Wall” surrounds the eye where the most damaging winds are found. It can range
anywhere from 5-30 miles.
 Then comes the “Rain Bands” which surround the eye wall. These bands are a series of dense
clouds that give a pin wheel-like appearance to the hurricane which range from 50-300 miles.
 Hurricanes are divided into five categories depending on the speed of the wind.
 Category 1: 74-95 mph
 Category 2: 96-110 mph
 Category 3: 111-129 mph
 Category 4: 130-156 mph
 Category 5: 157 mph or higher
 Category 3, 4 and 5 are the most dangerous ones.
 TRIVIA:
o A huge hurricane can release energy equivalent to 10 atomic bombs per second.
o Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean are known as typhoons.

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 September marks the peak at the Atlantic hurricane season, which extends from June through
November
 That uncertain time of year when we await the next big storm to see where it will make landfall
and when everyone really wants to know- what they will name it.
 But while we wait- let’s take a minute to consider why even have a season for hurricanes in the
first place.
 So in order to understand why we have a hurricane season, let’s build a hurricane.
 The perfect hurricane recipe calls for precursor storms, warm waters, and low wind shear.
 Let’s start with precursor storms. Hurricanes build from smaller what are called precursor
storms, start with a small disturbance or a thunderstorm, add warm water and wind, which we’ll
get to in a second, to build the storm bigger and bigger and bigger until it becomes a hurricane,
a.k.a. tropical cyclone with sustained wind of 74 miles per hour or more, which is basically like
putting you head out the window on the highway.
 Now, in the Atlantic Area, these precursor storms sweep in from Africa in what are called
easterly of tropic waves, basically, bands of thunderstorms that move west across the tropics.
 Another ingredient in the hurricane recipe is a warm ocean. As air flows over the ocean, it
transfers heat and water vapor up into the atmosphere. Through a cycle of evaporation and
condensation, the warm, wet air builds clouds and creates updrafts. This warm, wet air acts as
fuel. Add more fuel to the fire, so to speak, and build a stronger hurricane. Hurricanes gain
strength by forming high to the atmosphere. And in order to form high to the atmosphere, the
atmosphere needs to be somewhat calm, not too windy up high, not too windy down low. If one
or the other changes, the hurricane can basically topple over and fizzle out.
 So we need low wind shear, which means there’s little difference between in the high versus
low atmosphere.
 Our hurricane stays standing, and its circulation is not disrupted by strong winds.
  So now that we know what hurricanes are made of, let’s look at why they only form in the
Atlantic during summer to fall months. And to do that, we need to look once again at our basic
hurricane ingredients. Remember those Precursor storms blowing in from Africa? Well those
easterly waves from around summer and fall and peak in September, but due to factors
involving temperatures and some other atmosphere science we won’t get into right now, in our
winter, all is quiet on that eastern front, and there are no real disturbances waiting in the wings.
And winter in the northern hemisphere means cooler ocean waters. Cool waters means no fuel,
means no hurricanes.
 And finally in the winter months, the jet stream, which had been farther north during summer,
shifts back down south, where it creates high wind shear right smack dab in the prime are for
hurricane formation.
 With all of these factors in play, the winter months of the Atlantic region are hurricane-free, and
we should consider ourselves lucky.
 In other areas of the world where ocean water is warm year-round and wind shear is weak,
tropical cyclones can occur all year long, and that begs another question.
 With the climate warming and all, will the atlantic hurricane season expand? And scientists have
determined that that’s a real possibility.

CLICK VIEW

 There are three basic stages in the life of a tropical cyclone. Its origin or source, the mature
stage and the dissipation stage where it dies out .
 This occur in a continuous process not in as separate in distinct stages.
 Each stage may occur more than once during the life cycle.
 As the strength of the cyclone rises and falls, it may reach land weakened then go back to sea
where it strengthens once more.
 The formation of a cyclone depends upon the following:
 Conditions coinciding a large still warm ocean area with a surface temperature that exceeds
26.5 ⁰Celsius over an extended period. This allows a body of warm air to develop above the
ocean’s surface.
 Low altitude winds are also needed to form a tropical cyclone. As air warms over the ocean, it
expands, becomes lighter and rises.
 Other local winds blowing to replace the air that has risen, then this air is also warmed and rises.
 The rising air contains huge amounts of moisture evaporated from the ocean’s surface. As it
rises, it cools condensing to form a huge clouds about 10 kilometers up in the troposphere.
 More warm air rushes in and rises drawn by the draft above. The rising drafts of air carry
moisture high into the atmosphere so that these clouds eventually become very thick and
heavy.
 Condensation then releases the latent heat energy stored in the water vapor providing the
cyclone with more power. This creates a self-sustaining heat cycle.
 Drawn further upwards by the new release of energy, the clouds can grow to 12-15 kilometers
high.
 The force created by the Earth’s rotation on a tilted axis, the Coriolis effect causes rising
currents of air to spiral around the center of the tropical cyclone. It is at this stage that the
cyclone matures and the eye of the storm is created .
 As the air rises and cools, some of this dense air descends to form that clear still eye as the
cyclone rages around it.
 The eye wall where the wind is strongest behaves like a whirling cylinder. Cyclones rotate
clockwise in the southern hemisphere, counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere.
 The lowest air pressure in a tropical cyclone is always found at the center and is typically 950
millibars or less the average pressure at the Earth’s surface is about 1010 millibars.
 Tropical cyclones have significantly lower air pressure than the air that surrounds them. The
bigger the pressure difference, the stronger the wind force.
 One of the lowest air pressures ever recorded was 877 millibars for Typhoon Ida which hit the
Philippines in 1958 where winds reached 300 kilometers an hour.
 Once formed, the cyclones movement or track follows a pathway away from its source driven by
global wind circulation .
 As warm ocean waters feed it heat and moisture, the cyclone continues to enlarge.