Hurricanes are an exciting and extremely dangerous weather event. Although hurricanes usually subside on land, they destroy homes and cause floods due to heavy rains and stormy weather. Now a powerful tropical cyclone with the tender name "Irma" is raging over the Atlantic. It is stronger than Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in August and caused a catastrophic flood. The most affected by Irma are the island of Cuba and the Bahamas.
According to forecasts of meteorologists, both Harvey and Irmu can surpass the destructive force of Hurricane Mary, which will sweep across the islands of the Caribbean.
According to statistics, over the past 200 years, nearly 2 million deaths were caused by hurricanes. About 90% of hurricane-related deaths were due to floods.
Here are the top 10 most interesting hurricane facts.
10. Where hurricanes are born
Hurricanes are called powerful tropical storms (or cyclones) that appear in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricanes “born” in the north-west of the Pacific Ocean (near Japan) are called “typhoon”, and those that arise in the south of the Pacific Ocean or in the Indian Ocean are called cyclones.
9. When a hurricane is considered a hurricane
A tropical storm is classified as a hurricane when its winds reach a speed of at least 119 km / h. The fastest recorded hurricane wind speed reached 345 km / h when Patricia hurricane raged in 2015.
By the way, the word "hurricane" comes from "hurucane", the word of the Quiche Indians, which means "evil spirit of the wind", which is not surprising.
8. How do hurricanes occur
In eighth place in the ranking of unusual facts about hurricanes is an interesting concept that is not yet fully supported by factual material.
The origin of hurricanes usually occurs between June and November, when there are all conditions for the formation of tropical storms: the sea is warm (from 26 degrees), and the atmosphere is humid.
- Hurricanes form over warm waters when there are large differences in pressure and temperature between warm water and clouds. Clouds draw moisture and heated air near the surface of the water rises to the clouds, which creates a column of rapidly moving air.
- A zone of reduced pressure is created above, where new masses of hot air rise and condense, creating a chain reaction.
- Air currents swirl above the water, and rising up, the air becomes colder and turns into thunderclouds. They unite and go through three stages of "development": tropical depression (an area of low atmospheric pressure with a wind force of less than 50 km / h), a storm and a hurricane.
However, a hurricane does not always arise, even if there are all conditions for its development. This confuses scientists, because such a situation means the presence of unknown factors that are yet to be discovered.
7. A hurricane is a “heat engine”
Hurricanes “work” on heat generated by the formation of clouds and precipitation. To understand this process, imagine how you get out of the shower. You feel that it has become cooler than usual because water droplets evaporate from the skin into the air. But hurricanes have the opposite process - they draw water from the air and release heat.
Therefore, powerful storms generate an incredible amount of energy. Every second major hurricane releases an amount of energy equivalent to 10 atomic bombs. Therefore, hurricanes are sometimes called "heat engines."
6. The biggest hurricane
Hurricanes are the largest storms on Earth. Their size varies greatly - from 100 to 2000 km. The biggest hurricane documented on was Typhoon Type, which hit the northwest Pacific Ocean in 1979. It had a diameter of about 2220 km. 55 people died due to Type Type precipitation, and 44 people died or died as a result of shipwrecks at sea. Usually, during large-scale disasters caused by a hurricane, its name is excluded from the list of names for new cyclones. But with the "Type" this did not happen, and this name was used in 1983, 1986 and 1989.
5. Thunder and lightning
Hurricanes rarely come with thunder and lightning, because they are formed by vertical wind currents that cause water and ice to be together.
Those who have seen a hurricane nearby say that the sky becomes foggy about a day before stormy weather events. This turbidity is associated with cirrus clouds, which are part of a hurricane, and are composed of ice crystals. These cirrus clouds also look very beautiful in satellite imagery.
However, in 2005, hurricane Emily, hurricanes Rita and Katrina were accompanied by strong thunder and lightning.
4. Eye of the storm
All hurricanes have the so-called “eye of the storm” - usually it is 30-65 km in diameter and calm weather reigns in it. That is why, if the eye of the storm passes over some area, the storm there abates. Nevertheless, the eye is surrounded by a wall of strong wind, where the most severe weather conditions occur. In large hurricanes, cycles of changing the wall of the eye were recorded, while the eye becomes smaller. It is filled with clouds, and then “opens” again.
3. How many soul servings in a hurricane
One hurricane generates more than 9 trillion liters of rain per day. In just one day, so much rain water falls so that every person on Earth can take a shower 20 times.
2. Names of hurricanes
Hurricanes were first given names in the 19th century. The tradition began with Clement Rugge, an Australian meteorological officer. To very severe storms, he gave the nickname of people whom he did not like. During the Second World War, US military forecasters gave the Caribbean hurricanes the names of their spouses and mother-in-law, apparently the character of both of them was quite severe. And only after 1945 in America did a special list appear, consisting of female names in alphabetical order.
Currently, an alphabetical list of names is compiled annually for hurricanes that will appear next year. This helps not to confuse them if several hurricanes act in the same area at once.
1. The deadliest hurricane
In the first place in the list of shocking facts about hurricanes is the tropical cyclone Bhol, which in 1970 hit the territory of Bangladesh. This hurricane created a flood that claimed the lives of more than 500 thousand people and more than a million buffaloes, goats and other livestock.
Infographics
