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Article Series: Hurricanes
Hurricane Facts, Tips and Safety Protocols
Characteristics
of a Hurricane
Hurricanes and other cyclones that form in
the tropics during the summer time and fall are very different
from the tropical storms that form during the winter. Both
types of storms are able to produce very strong winds and flooding
rain. There are seven main characteristics that define
a tropical hurricane and they are that hurricanes have no fronts and the
winds weaken with height. The centers of the hurricane are
warmer than their surroundings and they form under weak high
altitude winds. The air also sinks at the center of a hurricane\and
the main energy source is the latent heat of condensation.
The last main characteristic of a hurricane is that they weaken
rapidly over land. During the last third of the 20th century,
floods and landslides from heavy rains were the leading cause
of hurricane and tropical storm deaths.
To make the best analysis of available data regarding hurricanes,
one must be familiar with the normal wind pressure, temperature,
clouds, and weather patterns associated with them. No two hurricanes
are exactly the same and there are great variations between
each one. Certain general features will appear with
sufficient frequency to permit mean pattern classifications. These features
serve as a valuable guide in reconstructing the picture of
an individual hurricane from sparse data. Since meteorological
elements are not distributed uniformly throughout all sections
of hurricanes, it is customary to describe the storms in terms
of right and left semicircles or four quadrants. The division
into semi circles is along a line extending through the center
of the cyclone and in the direction toward the storm.
The surface
winds of a hurricane will blow inward in a counterclockwise
direction toward the center. The winds in the left rear quadrant
have the greatest angle of inflow. The diameter of the area
affected by hurricane winds may be in excess of 100 miles in
large storms or as small as 25 miles in smaller storms. Gale
force winds can cover an area of 500 to 800 miles or even more.
The maximum extent of strong winds is usually in the direction
of the major subtropical high-pressure center. This is most
frequently found to the right of the storm’s path in the Northern
Hemisphere. Surface wind speeds of over 140 knots have been
successfully recorded, but the accurate measurements of peak
wind speeds have not been possible with any reliable degree
of accuracy.
The sea
level isobars are an excellent tool to analyze hurricanes.
The isobars take on a symmetrical or elliptical shape. In contrast
to extra tropical cyclones, the tropical cyclones show no cooling
toward the storms center. This indicates that the horizontal
adiabatic cooling caused by lower pressures and is largely
offset by the heat added through the condensation process.
The cloud patterns of tropical cyclones also differ from those
of extra tropical cyclones. In mature tropical cyclones, all
of the cloud forms are present, but the most significant clouds
are the heavy cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds, which spiral
inward toward the outer edge of the eye. The eye of a storm
is one of the oddest phenomena knows in meteorology. Precipitation
ceases abruptly at the boundary of a well-developed eye, the
sky clears, the sun or stars become visible, the wind subsides
to less than 15 knots, and there is a dead calm.
In mature storms, the eye’s diameter averages about 15 miles,
but it may attain over 40 miles in large typhoons. The eye
is not always circular and sometimes it becomes elongated and
may appear to have a double structure appearance. The eye is
constantly undergoing transformation and does not stay in a
steady state.
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by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2007
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