What are spiral bands?

The clouds arranged in curving bands that form the outside of a hurricane rather like those in a spiral galaxy are called spiral bands. They can extend for several hundred miles beyond the eye of the hurricane.

What is a concentric eye wall?

Most hurricanes are centered around one eye, but sometimes a secondary eye wall surrounds this eye. The second eye wall surrounds the first, and is thus called a concentric eye wall.

What is a hypercane?

Professor Kerry Emmanuel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an authority on using computer models to simulate hurricane activity. In one extreme scenario, Emmanuel hypothesized what might happen if a large asteroid hit one of Earth's oceans. Of course, there would be monstrous waves and immense heat generated by the impact, but there would be another side effect as well: a hypercane. A hypercane would occur after the impact because deep ocean waters would heat up. The result would be a strange hurricane that would only be about 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) across but would have incredible winds reaching 500 miles (800 kilometers) per hour! Such a hypercane would also be capable of jettisoning moisture upwards of 25 miles (40 kilometers) into the atmosphere.

What is the difference between a hurricane watch and a warning?

Somewhat like with tornado watches and warnings, a hurricane watch means that conditions are good that a hurricane will form within the next 36 hours or so. A hurricane warning means that a hurricane is expected to make landfall within 24 hours. Warnings and watches are issued by the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center.

What is the National Hurricane Center?

Based at Florida International University near Miami, the National Hurricane Center is part of the National Weather Service. Its mission is to predict and warn of dangerous hurricanes in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The headquarters building itself is heavily fortified against hurricanes. Having 10-inch-thick walls, roll-down shutters for its windows, and being far enough inland to be safe from storm surges, it is designed to survive 130 mile (210 kilometer) per hour winds so that it can still be operational after almost any hurricane.

How much energy can a hurricane produce?

An average hurricane can strike with a force equivalent to about 400 hydrogen bombs, each packing 20 megatons of explosive power.

Can a hurricane be stopped?

For all practical purposes, no. Proposals have been suggested, such as cloud seeding techniques, but to date science has yet to come up with a solution. During the 1950s, the U.S. federal government launched the Stormfury Project, which was an effort to dump silver iodide crystals near the eyes of hurricanes. The theory was that the seeding would generate a secondary eye in the storm, which would then hamper or even cause the original eye to collapse. Several experiments were conducted

Where in the tropics are you safe from a hurricane?

Hurricanes do not strike within five degrees latitude on either side of the equator. Therefore, if you wish to live in the sunny tropics and have a healthy fear of hurricanes, you may want to investigate real estate deals near the equator.

in 1961, 1963, 1969, and 1971, but while sometimes the results seemed promising, the data was inconclusive. Hurricane Esther, in 1961, appeared to be weakened by as much as 30 percent through seeding, but there was no proof that the storm didn't just weaken all by itself. The government gave up the project in the 1970s, and while private companies have continued some of this research, most meteorologists believe that there is just no practical way to destroy a hurricane. The problem seems to be the fact that, for it to work, cloud seeding requires supercooled water, but hurricane clouds contain insufficient supercooled moisture.

What was the "Storm that Wouldn't Die"?

In November 1992 Typhoon Gay lasted for days as it traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, eventually making landfall in Alaska, British Columbia, and California. At its peak, the storm boasted winds of 200 miles (322 kilometers) per hour. After making landfall in the United States, it continued across the Great Plains, then regained strength as it reached the East Coast. Here, it became a new storm on December 11 with winds of about 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour.

What was the "Great Hurricane of 1938"?

Possibly the worst storm to ever hit the American Northeast since the arrival of Europeans, the "Great Hurricane of 1938" wreaked havoc throughout New England and down as far as Long Island. Six hundred people died as a result of the storm in what has also been called the "Long Island Express."

What was Hurricane Katrina?

Hurricane Katrina was the name given to the devastating hurricane that developed in the Atlantic Ocean, crossed the Gulf of Mexico, and struck New Orleans and many other cities along the southern coast of the United States in late August 2005.

How many people died as a result of the subsequent failure of the levees and flooding after Hurricane Katrina struck?

The accepted final figures state that 1,836 people lost their lives following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina caused over $100 billion in damages to the United States in 2005, with New Orleans being particularly hard hit.

Was the 2005 New Orleans disaster caused by a flood or a hurricane?

The initial cause of the disaster was Hurricane Katrina, which whipped up tides and sea water against a very fragile levee system that protected New Orleans. The city is 49 percent below sea level, and so when the man-made levees broke, flood waters moved in and inundated much of the city.