HURRICANES

§Hurricane Andrew whacked the southern United States in It left more than 50 people dead, thousands of people homeless, and did more than $25 billion in damage. §Watch Andrew in action by viewing the following movies. These movies are several days of pictures shown together very quickly.

This movie shows the path of Hurricane Andrew from Sunday, August 23 through Thursday, August 27, Draw what you see. In your drawing show the direction the clouds swirl. Click for Movie

Here is a color movie of Andrew. Identify and describe the shapes you notice. Click for Movie

Here is a movie of Andrew with colored areas to show rain. Yellow shows greater rainfall than green or blue. Do you notice anything new when you watch this movie? Where in the cyclone is the rainfall the heaviest? Click for Movie

Andrew's History §Andrew began as a patch of thunderstorms over western Africa. It moved out over the Atlantic as a rainy low-pressure wave. The U. S. National Hurricane Center tracks 60 or 70 of these waves each hurricane season, June through November, using satellites. By Monday, August 17 it had intensified into a tropical storm, developing a swirling circulation, but not yet the clear eye of a strong hurricane. By Friday, August 21, pushed westward by a high pressure zone to the north, Andrew built strength over the open ocean. On Saturday, Andrew's winds reached hurricane (74 mph) strength and grew stronger as it approached the coast of Florida. §Sunday night and early Monday morning Andrew's winds reached 145 miles an hour with gusts of 175. More than 80,000 dwellings were demolished or damaged too severely to live in when its fury was unleashed on the coast of Florida. Another 55,000 homes were damaged, but still considered livable. Andrew moved on from Florida and surged ashore in Louisiana killing 15 people and doing billions more in damage.

Whirling Storms Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all names given to massive tropical storms in different parts of the world. They all occur over oceans in regions near the equator. These storms have several characteristics in common: Winds are always rotational. They whirl around in circular motion. Winds travel at much greater speed than other storms. Energy unleashed is 12,000 times as powerful as ordinary storms. The core of a hurricane is an area of low pressure, called the "eye." The eye has light winds, clear skies and no rainfall.

Here is a picture from the space shuttle of the eye of a cyclone.

WIND SPEEDS IN ANDREW

ANDREW OVER LOUISIANA

ANDREW BY VISIBLE LIGHT

ANALYZE HURRICANE PICTURES §Examine the following pictures and answer these questions.  How are the storms in the pictures the same?  How are they different?  One of these pictures is from a storm in the Southern Hemisphere. Can you tell which one? How is it different from the others?  The dotted lines on some images represent the outlines of continents or land masses. Can you identify the land mass and locate the storm on a map or globe?  Judging from the outlines of land, estimate the size of the hurricanes.  Identify the eye of the hurricane. How big do you think it is?

OTHER HURRICANES Hurricane Tomas, March 1994 Hurricane Emily

OTHER HURRICANES Hurricane Andrew, Gulf of Mexico August 1992 Hurricane Luis, off East coast Sept 1995

OTHER HURRICANES Hurricane Fran, off Florida Sept 1996 Hurricane Lilli, off Yucatan Oct 1996