1. Hurricane!
FB 1: Quick Sketch

2. Outline What is the water cycle? How do thunderstorms form?
How do hurricanes form?
What is the structure of a hurricane?
How strong can the winds get in a hurricane?
What kind of damage can a hurricane cause?
How do scientists track hurricanes?
Hurricane activities for the classroom.

3. Remember the Water Cycle?
Water cycles continuously between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere.
Water evaporates from the land, lakes, and oceans adding moisture to the atmosphere.
The water vapor forms clouds that rise to higher and higher altitudes.
Eventually rain or snow falls from clouds returning the water to the Earth’s surface.
The cycle repeats itself endlessly.
The goal on this slide is to introduce how water gets into the atmosphere and then returns. This will lead into how hurricanes form over warm oceans.
There are many other ways water can be returned to the Earth’s surface besides rain and snow, including sleet, hail, dew, and fog.

4. How does a thunderstorm form?
Thunderstorms and hurricanes start by the same process of warm moist air rising from the surface of oceans. If the storm region (also called a storm cell) is small, then a thunderstorm forms. If the rising warm moist air extends over many thousands of square miles, the system begins to rotate and a hurricane may develop.
Thunderstorms can form over land, lakes, and oceans. However, hurricanes only form over warm ocean waters. The reason? Hurricanes are large complex systems that require very warm and very moist air to grow larger. Only warm ocean waters in the equatorial or sub-tropical regions can provide the energy (warm waters) and moisture (evaporation) to form a hurricane.

5. What’s In A Name? FB 2: What’s In A Name?
FB 2: What’s In A Name?

6. Around the World
Violent storms that form in the Atlantic Ocean or Eastern Pacific Ocean are called
When violent storms form in the North Pacific, they are called
Typhoon: a tropical cyclone or hurricane of the western Pacific area and the China seas.
Add to FB: Vocabulary
typhoons.
hurricanes.
In the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, these storms are called
cyclones.
FB 3: Around the World

7. Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale
FB 4: Hurricane Scale
1) mph = miles per hour.
2) The Saffir-Simpson scale was developed in 1971 by Herbert Saffir (a civil engineer) and Robert Simpson (director of the National Hurricane Center).
3) The before and after photos were for the damage caused by hurricane Sandy in 2012.

8. Formation of a Hurricane
- Storms
FB 5: Formation
FB 7: Vocabulary
2. EYE
1. SPIRAL RAIN BANDS
3. EYEWALL
The highest winds are found in the eyewall of a hurricane.
Damaging winds and heavy rain can also occur in the rainbands of a hurricane.
Air in a rotating hurricane is drawn into the center of the storm, called the eye.
When the air reaches the eye, it rises up through the eyewall and spreads out on top of the hurricane forming dense cirrus clouds.

9. What does a hurricane need to form?
A seed…
A preexisting storm needs to move over the ocean.
Fertile soil to plant the seed…
Very warm ocean water of at least 80°F (26.5°C)
Light winds so the plant doesn’t fall over.
Light winds high up so that the thunderstorms aren’t blown over.
FB 5: Formation

10. In the northern Hemisphere they rotate COUNTER-CLOCKWISE
S. Hemisphere
FB 5: Formation
In the northern Hemisphere they rotate COUNTER-CLOCKWISE

11. Formation, continued When winds reach 39 mph = named tropical storm
At 74 mph = hurricane
Winds and low air pressure cause huge mound of ocean water to pile up near the eye = storm surge (FB 7: vocab)
Winds circulate around the center (like water going down a drain)
Cold, unstable air and warm, humid air begin to circulate growing the storm’s size and intensity.

12. How to strengthen a Tropical Cyclone
WARM WATER: At least 26.5°C (80°F) evaporates quickly making fuel for storm. ROTATION: Storm needs to start to spin in order to increase wind speed. Faster wind = more evaporation = more fuel THUNDERSTORMS AT THE CENTER: Allows incoming fuel to be “ignited”. EXHAUST: Removing used air allows more fuel to enter storm.

13. Hurricane Damage (add to back) Storm Surge
The storm surge on a Category 5 storm can be as high as 50 feet above normal sea level.
In the illustration above, the storm surge is in front of the storm (on the right side here) as it approaches landfall.
95% of the storm surge height is caused by wind pushing the ocean in front of the storm.

14. Hurricane Damage, con’d Wind/Flooding
There are so many images on the internet for hurricane damage, that dozens of slides could be added to this presentation. The key here is that strong hurricanes can literally level coastal cities. But the strong winds do not travel very far inland. Generally, the winds die off 10 mph for every miles the hurricane moves inland. So a Category 5 storm with winds above 156 mph might be only a Category 1 hurricane when the eye is 100 miles inland from the coast.
Land surfaces act like brakes on a hurricane’s rotation.
High winds and flooding are two of the most common causes of damage during a hurricane.

15. Hurricane Damage
Tornadoes can also cause damage in hurricanes because they can be embedded within rainbands.
Tornadoes are called water spouts when they occur over water.
Tornadoes form within hurricane rainbands because of the swirling winds within the hurricane. When winds moving in opposite directions collide, a tornado can form.
Tornadoes in hurricane rainbands can occur, but they are not always present.

16. Hurricane Damage
The most extreme forms of damage from a hurricane are along coastlines.
Here, only a single home remains standing along the Texas coastline after Hurricane Ike hit in 2008.
Hurricane damage along a coastline is the most severe because of high winds, pounding rain, and the storm surge.
The photo above was taken after Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coastline in The level of damage is almost 100%. This level of catastrophic damage only occurs when a very strong hurricane hits a coastline at high tide.
Why? Because the storm surge plus the high tide brings pounding surf further inland than if the hurricane storm surge hit at low tide. This was the case in Hurricane Ike.
Thus, sometimes the same strength of a hurricane might cause very different levels of damage depending on when and where each storm hits the coast.
The next slide explains a storm surge.

17. Hurricane Tracking How strong will they get? Where will they go?
This is a satellite image from It shows one hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and two hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.
Try quizing the students on where Florida is located…..or Mexico….or South America…..etc.

18. How is a hurricane tracked?
National Hurricane Center
Weather satellites collect photos and other data each day during hurricane season.
Images from several different types of satellites are studied to estimate the position, direction, and intensity of a storm.
Then, hurricane tracking aircraft fly into the storm to confirm wind speed and direction, rainfall, and internal pressure of the hurricane eye.
The National Hurricane Center is located in Miami, FL.
The hurricane season starts on June 1st each year and extends until November 30th.
The National Hurricane Center website is:

19. HURRICANE DATA Boats and Buoys: Floating observations
Hurricane Hunters: Manned aircraft that fly into the storm center and drop probes called DROPSONDES.
Radar: Identifies where rainfall is heaviest
Satellites: Can spot storms well out to sea.
Drones: Recent development. Collects data without risking people.

20. (1) Weather satellites are the first line of defense.
A GOES satellite is launched from Vandenburg, CA.
GOES = Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite.
The above example is the GOES satellite launched on November 18, 2010.
There are several steps involved with predicting the direction and intensity of hurricanes.
Step #1 is to get a fleet of weather satellites in Earth-orbit in order to get daily images of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is from these images that the National Hurricane Center can find the weather patterns that lead to hurricane formation.

21. (2) Scientist read weather maps to detect storms.
Katrina, 2005
Hurricane Isabel, 2010
Hurricane scientists use many different satellites, aircraft, and ground weather stations to predict the strength and direction of a hurricane.
Upper left photo: A GOES satellite false-color composite of air with high levels of rainfall (orange and red). The red/orange storm (yellow arrow) has not yet formed into a hurricane.
Right photo: A combination of a visual image from the GOES satellite and an infrared image of the temperature of the ocean surface (orange) from the Aqua satellite. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is shown when it was still building into a Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lower left photo: Hurricane Isabel in 2010 before it hit land.

22. (3) Hurricane tracking airplanes fly into the storms.
Hurricane tracking airplanes will fly into the hearts of hurricanes to measure the wind speed, rainfall, and atmospheric pressure. The information is sent by radio to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL so that scientists can predict where the hurricane will go.

23. Inside the Eye of a Hurricane
This photograph was taken onboard a Lockheed WP-3D Orion hurricane tracking airplane when it flew inside the eye of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The cloud bank in the distance is the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina.
It is safe to fly into hurricanes because airplanes fly into the wind, and they do not try to land in a hurricane.

24. Hurricane Tracks
1) The above track is for tropical storm Irene in Every tropical storm and hurricane has a track similar to this one. They are posted on the National Hurricane Center’s website at:
What does the track show?
The little orange dot at the far right is the current location of the storm when this map was posted.
The storm was only a tropical storm when this announcement was posted.
The letters S & H refer to the predictions when the storm will remain a tropical storm (S), and when it is expected to develop into a hurricane (H).
Latitude and longitude coordinates are given on the bottom (longitude) and left (latitude) of the map.
The colors correspond to the watches and warnings that the National Hurricane Center gives out 6 times per day.
The white outline and highlighted area is called a ‘prediction cone’ of where the hurricane might go. The prediction cone gets wider the longer into the future that the predictions are made.
Use the information posted on the National Hurricane Center’s website to track each storm in the classroom. A blank hurricane tracking map is given at the end of the slide show.

25. The above image can be used as a printout to help students track a hurricane or tropical storm. The lesson can be used to teach: (1) hurricane preparedness, (2) hurricane science, (3) geography, (4) what does latitude and longitude mean, and (5) how to read a map.

26. HURRICANE CLASSIFICATION
Hurricanes are classified on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Rated on the maximum SUSTAINED, or constantly blowing at that speed, winds that occur in the eyewall.
NAME WINDS (mph)
TROPICAL DEPRESSION ________________________
TROPICAL STORM ________________________
CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE ________________________
CATEGORY 2 HURRICANE ________________________
CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE ________________________
CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE ________________________
CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE ________________________
Less than 39 mph
40-73 mph
74-95 mph
mph
mph
mph
156+ mph

27. Classroom Suggestions
Draw a hurricane. First draw it from the top, as though the students were on the International Space Station in Earth orbit. Second draw it as a cross-section so that the student can label the parts of the hurricane.
Log onto the National Hurricane Center’s website ( and track any tropical storms and hurricanes identified.
Identify states and cities along the path of the hurricane and learn of the people that live in those areas.
Look at large-scale maps of the continents around the Atlantic Ocean and study the cultures of the people who live in areas that are most likely to be hit by a hurricane.
Research questions for the advanced students:
Why do hurricanes rotate counter clockwise? What is the Coriolis effect?
Why do hurricanes tend to move through the tropics east to west, and then suddenly surge northwest, northward, and eventually northeastward?
Why does the pressure inside the eye of the hurricane decrease as the intensity of the winds increase.
What are the things that everyone should do to get ready for a hurricane?
When drawing a view of a hurricane from above, make sure that the hurricane is rotating ‘counter-clockwise.’
The best site for the most up-to-date information on a hurricane is the National Hurricane Center. There are many other websites that can be used to track hurricanes, but they all get their information from the National Hurricane Center.
When a hurricane is approaching the USA, one of the best uses of a hurricane tracking module for the classroom is to show how multiple lines in scientific research including geography, meteorology, oceanography, aviation, and satellite imagery are brought together to predict the path of the storm.
Also, tracking a hurricane to a country in the Caribbean, Central America, or South America can be used to introduce new cultures and countries to the students. If this is done several times during an active hurricane season, the students can be introduced to a wide diversity of people and cultures.
And lastly, here are a few Research Questions to ask the students. They can be given out as a group quiz, or used to go into greater depth on hurricanes.

28. Resources Additional Websites
The information, photographs and illustrations presented here were obtained from several government websites:
a) NOAA = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [
b) NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration [
c) NWS = NOAA National Weather Service [
Specific photographs and illustrations were downloaded from the following public domain websites:
a) Flickr NASA photostream.
b) Flickr NOAA photostream.
c) NASA Goddard Space Center.
d) NOAA and NASA websites.
Additional Websites
Good luck, and have fun!
The next few slides are given as freebies to give extra photographs related to hurricanes
National Hurricane Center:
The Weather Channel:
The Weather Underground:
NOAA National Weather Service Radar:

29. Hurricane tracking can be used for geography lessons as well.
Where is Canada, USA, Spain, Africa, etc.?
The image above is a composite of all of the hurricanes that formed in 2010.

31. Before and after photographs for the damage along the New Jersey coastline during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

32. Let’s Review: Hurricane Formation
- Storms
Let’s Review: Hurricane Formation
Begins as a low-pressure area over warm water, or a tropical disturbance.
Warm, humid air rises and begins to spiral.
As air rises, more warm, moist air is drawn into the system and the hurricane gains energy.
As winds spiral inward, bands of high winds and heavy rains form.

33. 1) Look how BIG a hurricane can be
1) Look how BIG a hurricane can be. This one is hurricane Isabel in It stretches from South Carolina all the way north into Canada.

34. Hurricane Matthew
FB 6: Hurricane Matthew

35. Hurricane Matthew