The most powerful hurricanes in the world. What is a hurricane: briefly about a terrible natural phenomenon

Every day we learn more and more sad news about how the powerful Hurricane Harvey, raging in the Gulf of Mexico, is causing more destruction and killing an ever-increasing number of human lives. Hurricanes, typhoons - all this is practically unknown to residents middle zone, and therefore we decided to tell you about what this natural disaster actually is.

What is a hurricane

The term "hurricane" has two main meanings. Firstly, a hurricane is a storm, that is, a very strong wind whose speed exceeds 30 m/s. Often such storms are accompanied strong unrest on the sea or ocean. However, we are interested in the second, narrower and more familiar meaning, according to which a hurricane is a weather system low pressure. It occurs over heated areas open water of sufficient size and is accompanied by powerful thunderstorms, showers and storms. From space, a hurricane looks like a huge funnel of clouds: it gets energy from being warm wet air rises upward, after which the moisture condenses in the form of water vapor and falls as rain, while the warm air that has become dry falls down. Hurricanes are also called "warm-core cyclones" because the operating principle of polar and extratropical cyclones is completely different.

Storm winds during a typhoon cause the sea to fall on coastline huge waves

The word “hurricane” itself comes from the name of the Mayan god of the wind - Huracan. There is another popular name for a hurricane - “ tropical cyclone" But in Japan and Far East hurricanes are called typhoons. They arise and maintain their strength only above the surface of large bodies of water, and if the wind blows a hurricane onto land, it will quickly exhaust itself. Therefore, it is the coastal areas that suffer the most from the elements, but heavy rains generated by hurricanes often cause extensive flooding even at a distance of 40 km from the coast. Despite the fact that tropical cyclones often cause enormous damage to infrastructure, they cannot be called absolute evil. Firstly, it is thanks to hurricanes that drought ends in some areas of the Earth and the vegetation landscape is restored. Secondly, tropical cyclones carry a large number of energy from equatorial latitudes towards temperate latitudes, which makes them an important component global processes atmospheric circulation. This leads to a decrease in temperature on various parts of the planet's surface, so that it avoids overheating and maintains a stable temperate climate.

What does a hurricane consist of: the eye of the storm


Diagram of the structure of a hurricane: red arrows show flows of warm air, blue arrows show gradually cooling air

Eye of the Storm(or simply “eye”) is the central part of the cyclone, in which warm air falls down. As a rule, it retains a regular round shape, and its diameter can reach from 3 to 370 km, but on average the size of the eye is 30−60 km. An interesting “stadium effect” is associated with it: in large cyclones, the upper part of the eye is noticeably wider than the lower, which, when observed from the inside, actually resembles the shape of a stadium bleacher.

Large cyclones usually have a clear eye and a clear sky; in small ones it can be partially or completely covered with clouds, which is characterized by significant thunderstorm activity.

Wall of the eye


The eye wall of a storm can be seen either from inside the hurricane or in photographs of space satellites

In fact, the eye is an opening that forms a ring of dense thunderstorm cumulus clouds. Here the clouds reach their greatest height, but maximum speed winds are achieved not at the top of the wall, but at a small height above the surface of the water or land. Remember the videos from the Internet where strong winds lift small buildings off the ground and blow away cars? This is precisely the destructive power of a hurricane wall passing over a populated area.

Strong cyclones (category 3+) change the wall several times throughout their existence. At the same time, the old wall narrows to 10-25 km, and it is replaced by a new one of larger diameter. Changing the wall - good sign: during each such procedure the cyclone weakens, but it is worth keeping in mind that after the final formation of the new wall it will quickly gain its previous strength.

Outer zone

The wide canvas of a hurricane consists of so-called rain bands - lines of dense thunderstorm clouds that slowly diverge from the center of the cyclone. The wall and outer zone is the area where moist air rises through circulation cells, but they are all smaller than the central one.

What happens when a hurricane makes landfall? An increase in surface friction causes a concentration of air flows and, as a result, rainfall.

However, the hurricane is not limited to these categories. Due to the centrifugal movement of air, it forms cloud cover even at very high altitudes. These clouds have little in common with the dense cumulus cover of the wall and outer zone: light and cirrus, they move quickly from the center of the cyclone and gradually disappear. They can become the first signal warning of the imminent arrival of a cyclone.

Hurricane Harvey


The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey: highways turned into swimming pools dirty water

So what makes it stand out among its peers? Harvey", currently turning Texas into a water-covered wasteland? For starters, this is the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since the famous Katrina, which hit the United States in 2005. He was initially classified as category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale. This is the so-called huge hurricane ": the wind speed on its territory reaches 50−70 m/s, and the flooded zone is located at an altitude of up to 3 meters above sea level, while the floods extend ten kilometers inland.

On the last day of summer, the US National Weather Service reported that Harvey had weakened and moved from a tropical storm to a tropical depression: wind speeds had dropped significantly, but heavy rainfall was still continuing. We can only hope that the cyclone will soon disappear altogether: at present, the federal authorities are finding it difficult to give even an approximate estimate of the damage that the disaster caused along its entire path.

Hurricane is a strong wind average speed 180 km/h!), rotating in a spiral around one center and accompanied by heavy rain. How do hurricanes form?

How does a hurricane appear?

A hurricane requires a lot of moisture and heat to form. When sea ​​water heats up above 27 C, it begins to evaporate intensely, the air over the ocean becomes warm, humid and begins to quickly rise upward. The place of rising warm air is constantly replaced by flows of cold air, which, in turn, also heat up and rise. This is how the movement of air creates a strong wind, and a hurricane is formed.

The warm air that rises cools, and as it cools, the moisture in the air condenses and forms giant clouds. Condensation releases additional heat and the more clouds that form, the warmer the air becomes, the more more water evaporates from the surface of the ocean, which leads to the formation of new clouds and so on. The hurricane works as a kind of...

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The general prerequisites for the occurrence of hurricanes are heated air saturated with moisture, intense evaporation from the ocean surface, the convergence of southern and northern trade winds, and atmospheric instability.

The formation of hurricanes is provoked by stratospheric jet streams, little-studied emissions of solar energy, and unevenness of ascending air flows.

During the upper origin of a hurricane, individual vortices arise and disintegrate, passing the bifurcation point. In the model, this point is characterized by increased acoustic noise of a wide spectrum, as well as the formation of a hurricane funnel, consisting of external and internal generatrices.

The inner part of the funnel (cone) consists of upward, spirally rotating and diverging flows towards the periphery of the cone. In the upper part, these flows turn into downward and then near-surface flows, directed towards the center.

A stable structure is formed that has the following properties. A traction force appears directed towards the surface. Under the influence...

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Tornadoes, even if they are small, are the most powerful hurricanes in nature. Spinning and wriggling like snakes, they crawl out of the clouds and, descending to the ground, cause enormous devastation, destroying houses, throwing cars around like balls and uprooting trees. Those who survived an encounter with a tornado say that at the scene they found straws driven into tree trunks like nails. The sound of an approaching tornado is like the roar of a gigantic freight train. The United States of America (USA) is the champion in the number of tornadoes (they are called tornadoes there). On average, there are up to 700 tornadoes per year in the United States (some states experience tornadoes more often than others). In 1953, there was one single tornado in Alaska, while in Kansas there were more than 1200. In second place after the United States is Australia with its measly 15 tornadoes per year.

How does a tornado or tornado form?

Added to a large thundercloud is the wind blowing in opposite direction. When that headwind...

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What is a hurricane? How is it different from a storm, typhoon, strong wind, tornado or tornado? Why are hurricanes so destructive? Is it possible to predict the birth of a hurricane and avoid a collision with it? Let's try to figure it out.

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a very strong wind whose speed exceeds 120 kilometers per hour. If it reaches 180 kilometers, then the hurricane is considered very strong. It can be tropical and have nothing to do with the tropics. The first are formed, as the name implies, over the tropics. Tropical cyclones that occur over the Pacific Ocean are often called typhoons. They are accompanied by the region low blood pressure. Hurricanes that appear over the Atlantic are often simply called cyclones. Non-tropical hurricanes can occur in other places on the planet, but the reason for their appearance is the same: differences in temperature and atmospheric pressure in different layers of the atmosphere. The most dangerous are hurricanes that form close to the coast. They,...

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Home > Weather > What is a hurricane?

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a wind that blows at a speed of more than 32 meters per second for a long time. It is also called a typhoon - a vortex with low atmospheric pressure inside. Tropical cyclones are often called hurricanes, especially in the North and South America. A storm is considered to become a hurricane when wind speeds exceed 120 kilometers per hour, and at wind speeds of 180 kilometers per hour, a hurricane is called a major hurricane. The most dangerous hurricanes are those that form close to the coast. They not only sweep away everything in their path, but also bring huge waves onto the shore.

Interestingly, in America it is customary to give typhoons female names, and in alphabetical order, starting with the letter "A". But every year they start giving names anew.

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes always form in tropical latitudes, over the ocean. The further you are from the equator, the less likely you are to encounter a hurricane. The emergence...

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

RUSSIAN STATE HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Information Systems and Geotechnologies

Abstract on the topic

"Hurricanes"

Completed by: student gr. IB-334

Chistyakova Olga

Head: Associate Professor Voronov N.V.

Saint Petersburg

Introduction

How does a hurricane form?

Related hurricane components

Hurricane classification and Beaufort wind scale

Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale

The impact of hurricanes on people's lives

Hurricane - one of the atmospheric monsters of our planet

What to do if there is a storm warning?

Bibliography

Introduction

Let's start, of course, with the most interesting. A hurricane or, as it is called in the tropics, a typhoon in the Northern Hemisphere always blows counterclockwise, but in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth it is the other way around...

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As long as humanity lives, it tries to conquer the elements, because many natural phenomena bring with them fear, material losses, and sometimes even death. One of the most common and dangerous disasters on our planet is a hurricane.

On its way, it demolishes trees and buildings, destroys roads and bridges, and leaves behind destruction and fires. Where do hurricanes come from and how can you protect your life from their destructive power?


How dangerous is a hurricane to humans?
What should you do if a hurricane begins?
How is a hurricane different from a tornado?
How is a hurricane different from a tornado?

What is a hurricane and where does it come from?

A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs over the warm surface of the ocean and is accompanied by heavy rainfall, strong winds and thunderstorms. It appears when moist and warm air comes into contact with cold atmospheric masses of large volume. As a result, over the ocean...

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Hurricane.

A person can call himself the king of nature, but often he cannot oppose anything to it. When nature begins to get angry, then all that remains for us is to hide, run, and restore what was destroyed. One of the most famous natural disasters is a hurricane. You can call it a tropical cyclone or a typhoon, it doesn’t change the essence.

The Japanese called the “divine wind” the word “kamikaze”. A tornado is different in that the winds are stronger than in a hurricane. But this phenomenon does not last long. Hurricanes can reach the size of entire states; they are most active for several days. Hurricanes rain down on the earth, causing floods. Waves appear that reach 5 and even 15 meters in height.

Those who find themselves in the path of such hurricanes should know themselves. A person’s life and the safety of his property depend on correct behavior. And in order to fight the enemy, you need to get to know him better. The most interesting thing about hurricanes remains...

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Tornado, tornado. Causes of appearance, varieties.

Tornadoes, tornadoes, and storms today continue to claim hundreds and thousands of lives across the planet. The causes of tornadoes and waterspouts have long been known to people, but this does not allow us to avoid victims in this natural disaster. Experts and scientists unanimously claim that in Lately cases of tornadoes have become much more frequent, which is associated with the general environmental condition, which is getting worse and worse every day. Global warming is the main reason for the increase in tornadoes.

Tornado (similar names: tornado, thrombus, meso-hurricane) is a powerful flow of air, a vortex that rotates at tremendous speed. The funnel that forms during a tornado can destroy any buildings and turn any object in its path into small splinters. Visible tornado makes dust, earth and everything that gets inside the funnel on the way.

A tornado (tornado) reaches sizes of up to 50 km...

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Surely, while observing various natural phenomena, a person has more than once asked himself the question about one of the most dangerous of them - a tornado. What is a tornado? This is a strong vortex, a kind of giant air funnel formed under cumulus clouds due to difference atmospheric pressure and always developing in a vertical spiral.

What is a tornado?

A tornado is easy to recognize by its dark cloud column, the height and diameter of which are frightening in size and can reach several kilometers. This natural phenomenon always descends from a cloud in the form of a cone-shaped funnel, tapering towards the surface of the earth. Spinning at breakneck speed, it absorbs objects that get in its way. The approach of a tornado is accompanied by a terrible growing sound, its strength reminiscent of the roar of a huge freight train or a waterfall. In terms of its energy, the force of a tornado is equivalent to a rupture atomic bomb, blown up in 1945 by the Americans during tests in...

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Taken from http://referat.ru

Introduction

1. The nature of tornadoes and tornadoes

2. The concept of a tornado

3. Rules of conduct when a tornado is approaching

4. Types of tornadoes

5. How tornadoes form

6. Conditions for the formation of tornadoes

7. Why do tornadoes occur?

8. Rules for naming hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons

9. What's inside a tornado

Conclusion

List of used literature


Introduction


History has preserved a lot of information about natural disasters, which are currently called tropical cyclones and which mainly form over the oceans in the tropics, regularly hitting the eastern and equatorial regions of the continents. Tropical cyclones are hurricanes and typhoons that occur in northern and southern parts Pacific Ocean, in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, in the southern part Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar and the northwestern coast of Australia....

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Hurricane and tornado are atmospheric vortices. However, these two natural phenomena are formed and manifest themselves in different ways. A hurricane is accompanied by strong winds, and a tornado appears in thunderclouds and is an air funnel that sweeps away everything in its path.

Speed hurricane wind on Earth 200 km/h near the ground. This is one of the most destructive phenomena of nature: passing along the surface of the earth, it uproots trees, tears off the roofs of houses, and brings down power and communication line supports. A hurricane can last for several days, weakening and then gaining strength again. The danger of a hurricane is assessed on a special five-point scale, which was adopted in the last century. The degree of danger depends on the speed of the wind and the destruction caused by the hurricane. But terrestrial hurricanes are far from the most powerful. On the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), hurricane wind speeds reach 2000 km/h.

A tornado is formed when it moves unevenly...

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Good afternoon, participants and readers of the WhyCheck Club! Today in my Club I have an answer to a question sent by grandmother Lilia and her six-year-old granddaughter:

“Where does a tornado come from, why does it pull everything up, why does it move?”


A tornado (as we usually call it) or a tornado (as this phenomenon is called in America) is indeed a very curious and quite rare natural phenomenon. It is a vortex column several hundred meters high and only a few tens of meters in diameter (individual giant tornadoes can reach 1.5-3 km in diameter), which arises due to the difference in atmospheric pressure between the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere. The air in this column rotates at tremendous speed. And an area of ​​low pressure is created around, which, as it were, “draws” into itself everything that falls into it. And then trees, people, cars, and sometimes even freight trains fly into the air. And houses “explode” from the inside, as the pressure inside them becomes...

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In many countries, a tornado is called a tornado, because in fact it is the same natural phenomenon. The zone of their constant distribution is temperate and tropical latitudes in the territory North America, Europe and Asia. Many people find themselves inside a residential or commercial building during this disaster, so they only later learn about what they experienced. Of course, if they manage to survive the onslaught of the elements.

People who survived the tornado give approximately the same descriptions. They, along with buildings and objects, are lifted into the air and whirled by a wind of monstrous force. The whirlwind destroys many structures and leaves behind a thick layer of dust, earth and construction waste. Those who find themselves on the periphery have a certain chance of survival, since the wind accelerated to supersonic speed simply lifts and throws buildings along with their contents. Structures that find themselves in the center of the vortex most often end up crushed and flattened on the ground.

general description

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Instructions

The causes of tornadoes are not well understood. The occurrence factors for typical tornadoes have been identified. A tornado can appear when warm air filled with water vapor comes into contact with cold, dry air that forms over the cold surfaces of the sea.

At the point where warm air comes into contact with cold air, water vapor transforms into a liquid state with the formation of raindrops. This releases heat, warming the air. The heated air rises, simultaneously creating a rarefaction zone. Warm, moist air from the cloud and cold air from the lower layers begin to enter this zone. A significant release of energy occurs. As a result of the process, a characteristic funnel is formed.

A vacuum of air is formed inside the funnel, as the air rises upward from high speed. Cold air enters the rarefaction zone, which cools even more. The funnel descends down to the surface of the earth. Into the rarefaction zone...

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Wind moving at a speed of more than 32 m/s is considered to be a hurricane.

A hurricane occurs when warm and moist air comes into contact with a large area of ​​cold air; the contact zone has a very large extent. The front of a hurricane passes along the line of contact with the surface of the earth, moving in a direction transverse to its center line. Cold air is drawn in from either side of the hurricane's centerline, moving with highest speed above the surface of the earth. In this case, intensive mixing of the incoming warm, humid air with cold air located above the surface of the earth occurs, and intense rain falls. After the front passes, the air temperature increases noticeably.

At the center of the cyclone, an area of ​​extremely low pressure is formed with more high temperature. This area of ​​very low pressure is called the "eye" of the typhoon. Scientists still don’t know why the “eye” is formed. The diameter of the "eye" is usually...

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Hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea or in the eastern Pacific. The word “hurricane” itself is a distorted name of the god of fear Huracan among the South American Quiche Indians. In the western Pacific Ocean, hurricanes are called “typhoons” (from the Chinese “tai fung” or “tai feng”, which means “big wind”), in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal - “cyclones”, off the coast of Australia - “willy willy”, in Oceania it is “willy wow”, and in the Philippines it is “baguio”.

Hurricanes form as cyclones in the intertropical zone over the world's oceans when water temperatures exceed 26 degrees Celsius. A hurricane is generated by perturbation ( sudden disturbance normal course of something), which occurs when warm, moist air that comes into contact with the sea begins to rise. Having reached great heights, it condenses, releasing heat, which causes other masses of hot air to rise and condense, creating something like a chain reaction. Meanwhile, the air flows begin to rotate in a counterclockwise direction (clockwise - in Southern Hemisphere) due to the rotation of the Earth, dragging along the clouds of perturbation. When the wind speed reaches 130 kilometers per hour, it becomes a hurricane. Hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere, due to the rotation of the Earth, move westward (from Africa towards America) at a speed that initially does not exceed 20-25 kilometers per hour.

A storm becomes a hurricane when its accompanying wind speed exceeds 119 kilometers per hour.

The name is assigned to a tropical storm when the winds accompanying the storm blow at speeds above 62 kilometers per hour.
The third category is assigned to a hurricane when wind speeds increase to 178 kilometers per hour. A hurricane of this category can already cause destruction of buildings and knock down trees.

In the Atlantic, hurricane season begins on June 1st. The hurricane season is considered moderate in intensity, with 11 named storms, six of which become hurricanes, and only two hurricanes reaching or exceeding Category 3.
The most destructive season for the Atlantic was the 2005 season, when 28 named storms were recorded, 15 of which were hurricanes, four of which struck the American coast, including Katrina, which killed more than 1.3 thousand people in the southern states .

A typhoon is a type of tropical cyclone that is typical of the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

Typhoon activity zone, which accounts for the third part total number tropical cyclones on Earth, enclosed between the coast East Asia in the west, the equator in the south and the date line in the east. Moving from the west and northwest at a speed of 10-20 km/h, typhoons reach the coasts of Indochina, China, and Korea. The frequency of typhoons is greater than that of tropical cyclones in any other area globe. On average, there are about 30 typhoons per year, most of which develop to the hurricane stage (wind speed over 30 meters per second), the rest reach the tropical storm stage.

Most typhoons form from May to November. The 1991 typhoon season was especially destructive.

Cyclones occur in both the northern and southern Indian Ocean, north and south of 8 degrees latitude. Southern Indian Ocean cyclones originate near the parallel of 10 degrees south latitude and most often occur in the summer. On average there are 8 to 9 hurricanes per year, with a maximum in January (22%) and a minimum in July (0.6%).

In the Bay of Bengal, the highest number of cyclones occurs in May (19%) and October (30%), while the minimum number occurs in July (3%) and February (0%). If we consider the cyclone season to be those months when with some probability you can encounter at least one cyclone during the month, then such a season begins in November and ends in April.

Rules for naming hurricanes and typhoons

Before the first system for naming hurricanes, hurricanes received their names haphazardly and randomly. Sometimes a hurricane was named after the saint on whose day the disaster occurred. For example, Hurricane Santa Anna got its name, which reached the city of Puerto Rico on July 26, 1825, St. Anna. The name could be given to the area that suffered the most from the disaster. Sometimes the name was determined by the very form of development of the hurricane. Thus, for example, hurricane “Pin” No. 4 got its name in 1935, the shape of its trajectory resembled the mentioned object.

Famous original method hurricane naming, invented by Australian meteorologist Clement Rugg, who named typhoons after members of parliament who refused to vote on weather research credits.

The names of cyclones became widespread during the Second World War. U.S. Air Force and Navy meteorologists were monitoring typhoons in the northwest Pacific Ocean. To avoid confusion, military meteorologists named typhoons after their wives or girlfriends. After the war, the US National Weather Service compiled an alphabetical list of female names. The main idea behind this list was to use names that are short, simple and easy to remember.

By 1950, the first system in hurricane names appeared. First they chose the phonetic army alphabet, and in 1953 they decided to return to women's names. Subsequently, the assignment of female names to hurricanes became part of the system and was extended to other tropical cyclones - Pacific typhoons, storms of the Indian Ocean, Timor Sea and the north-west coast of Australia. The naming procedure itself had to be streamlined. Thus, the first hurricane of the year began to be called a female name, starting with the first letter of the alphabet, the second - with the second, etc. The names chosen were short, easy to pronounce and easy to remember. There was a list of 84 female names for typhoons. In 1979, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), together with the US National Weather Service, expanded this list to also include male names.

Since there are several basins where hurricanes form, there are also several lists of names. For Atlantic basin hurricanes there are 6 alphabetical lists, each with 21 names, which are used for 6 consecutive years and then repeated. If there are more than 21 Atlantic hurricanes in a year, the Greek alphabet will come into play.

If a hurricane is particularly destructive, the name assigned to it is removed from the list and replaced by another. So, the name Katrina is forever crossed out from the list of meteorologists.

In the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, names of animals, flowers, trees and even foods are reserved for typhoons: Nakri, Yufung, Kanmuri, Kopu. The Japanese refused to give female names to deadly typhoons because they consider women to be gentle and quiet creatures. And the tropical cyclones of the northern Indian Ocean remain nameless.

Abstract on the topic

"Hurricanes"

Completed by: student gr. IB-334

Chistyakova Olga

Head: Associate Professor Voronov N.V.

Saint Petersburg

    Introduction

    How does a hurricane form?

    Related hurricane components

    Hurricane classification and Beaufort wind scale

    Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale

    The impact of hurricanes on people's lives

    Hurricane - one of the atmospheric monsters of our planet

    What to do if there is a storm warning?

    Bibliography

Hurricanes

Introduction

Let's start, of course, with the most interesting. A hurricane or, as it is called in the tropics, a typhoon in the Northern Hemisphere always blows counterclockwise, but in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth, on the contrary, clockwise. By the way, this feature of hurricanes has not yet been fully studied. A hurricane is a wind that usually moves at enormous speeds, up to one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. The lifetime of a hurricane does not exceed twelve days. To make it easier for forecasters to work with hurricanes, they are given names. It is noteworthy that previously only female names were given, but women considered this to be discrimination. Today we are already accustomed to hurricanes with male names.

A hurricane is a wind of destructive force and significant duration (as opposed to a short-term squall). On the Beaufort scale, a hurricane is defined as a wind speed of more than 32.7 m/s and is assigned a strength of 12.

During hurricanes, the width of the zone of catastrophic destruction reaches several hundred kilometers (sometimes thousands of kilometers). The hurricane lasts 9 - 12 days), causing a large number of casualties and destruction. 2

How does a hurricane form?

In order for a hurricane to form, only a few factors are required: the ocean surface to be about 27 degrees warm, the absence of a vertical wind direction and, of course, a departure from the equator by about 10 degrees of latitude. The presence of the latter factor is mandatory for there to be sufficient Coriolis force. Coriolis plays great importance in the formation of a hurricane.

Air currents generally always contribute to the formation of vortices. In the area between two completely different areas of air, hydrodynamic instability is formed. This means that the territory first becomes loose, loops are formed, which then grow together to form a circle. For example, this happened with the Gulf Stream, an ocean current. It all starts with small waves and ends with huge whirlwinds. The removal begins from the very shore and can wander through the water for a long time, and can reach 200-300 km. The vortices of this current were given the name “Gulf Stream rings”.

Huge vortices may not necessarily exist in the ocean or earth's atmosphere. This may be new to you, but there are stable vortices sunspots. This number includes the famous "Great Red Spot" of Jupiter. It is larger in size than planet Earth itself. During its existence, which is about many hundreds of years, it has never changed its shape or dimensions.

In nature, not every whirlwind can develop into a hurricane. To do this, he needs a special stimulus. In this case, it will be the evaporated warm water and convection. Moisture rises upward, causing it to condense there. As a result of condensation, heat is released, and the air rises even higher. Due to the fact that the air becomes lighter, a low-pressure area is formed, and other air tends to enter it. Then the force of the Earth's rotation spins the air and creates a hurricane. [ 4 ]

A hurricane is a wind that twists into several spirals, and with enormous speed. If the wind blows at a speed reaching 120 km/h, then the pressure along the axis of the air column begins to fall quite quickly. The area of ​​low pressure that forms in the center is called the epicenter of the hurricane. Sometimes an area of ​​low pressure is also called the "eye" of a hurricane. The width of the hurricane's epicenter can reach from 15 to 30 km. The low pressure at the epicenter is the reason that sea water can easily be sucked into the epicenter and rise upward. Low pressure areas may experience very heavy rainfall. And the most powerful rains usually occur around the epicenter of the disaster.

The eye of a hurricane can be thought of as a hole in a donut. It is usually calm inside, and the winds only blow around the epicenter. The sky above the “gas” can be cloudless and clear. The wind there usually does not exceed 34 km/h.

If someone happens to be caught in the epicenter of a hurricane, then first you can feel a strong wind, and then an equally strong rain. When the hurricane's epicenter shifts, calm weather and clear skies will occur. After some time, it will rain again and a strong wind will blow. Only now the wind will blow in the opposite direction.

Modern meteorology still cannot clearly explain the origin of some phenomena, for example, how the “eye” of a hurricane is formed or why the pressure along the axis of the air column quickly drops and the epicenter of a hurricane is formed. [ 5 ]