Hurricanes

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Lets get our noses off the ground and

look back to the skies
Tropical Cyclone- A low pressure storm
surrounded by rotating winds

y Called Hurricanes in the Atlantic & Eastern

Pacific
y Called Typhoons in the Western Pacific and
Asia

Form over warm seawater (25C+) and

between ~5 and 20 latitude.

Global Wind Patterns

See Ch.10 pg. 265
Wind patterns have relationship to
position on
the globe
Latitude
dependant
(North/
South)

Know this

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Global Wind Patterns

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Recall highs
and lows
Equatorial
low (0)
Subtropical
high (30)
Trade winds
(SW)
Westerlies
(NE)

Global Wind Patterns

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Coriolis Effect- Deflection of an object (air

mass) in a direction due to rotation (right in
the Northern
hemisphere
and left in
the Southern)
This leads to
a shearing
directionality
of air masses

Hurricanes
Northern Hemisphere

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Southern Hemisphere

Hurricanes
Counter Clockwise

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Clockwise

Hurricanes

Form within the trade winds, disperse

within the westerlies

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Hurricanes

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Hurricanes contain rising moist warm air

rotating into the center (eye)
The Eye is a low pressure zone in the
center of the storm where warm wet air
rotates around and dry cool air
descends into
The eye is calm, but
the strongest winds
exist within its walls

Hurricanes

200km+ wide (diameter), eye ~20km

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Hurricanes
Approaching the eye, wind velocities
increase, pressure drops
(figure 14-2 pg.417)
Once inside eye, wind
velocities are zero
Consider as a storm
passes over you and
you are within the
eye, what will happen
next?

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Hurricanes

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We classify hurricanes based upon wind

speed and barometric pressure
Saffir-Simpson Scale- divides hurricanes
into 5 categories (1 weakest, 5 strongest)

Category

Pressure (mbar)

Surge (ft)

Wind (mph)

>980

4-5

75-95

965-979

6-8

96-110

945-964

9-12

111-130

920-944

13-18

131-155

<920

>18

>155

Hurricanes

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Damaging products of hurricanesy Storm Surge- Due to low pressure and high

winds, sea level rises with hurricane

y Wind and Rain- produced by storm, can cause

damage and flooding (along with surge)

Hurricanes

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Hurricane Case Study

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Typhoon Haiyan (Yolonda) November 2013

y
y
y
y
y

Category 5
Max winds- 195mph
Pressure- 895 mbar
Storm surge- 17ft
Rainfall- 11in+ (12hr)

Landfall in the
Philippines
November 7th

Well defined eye

Hurricane Case Study

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Hurricane Case Study

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4,000+ confirmed deaths

Estimated damage
~1.1billion USD
Philippine warnings
issued prior to storm
landfall
Entire cities destroyed
Waves/ storm surge were major culprit in
damage/ loss of life

Hurricane Case Study

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Aftermath?

EXTRA CREDIT

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Field trip this Sunday (November 24th)

y Meeting 8:00am at San Antonio Dam
y We will be done by lunch time
y Forms to sign on Thursday

Map

y Short 1 page summary due Dec. 5th

Exercise #2 (requires Excel)

y Assignment due Dec. 5th

One or the other, will be no more than 5% of

your grade

Next Time

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We will skip risk and mitigation

y We have touched on these topics throughout the

quarter

Last assignment (Exercise #15)

y Review floods
Recurrence intervals (understand how to calculate)
Hydrographs (know what you are looking at)

Tamara will lecture on global warming

Midterm Review (Midterm 11/26)