The Life of a Hurricane
On this site you will find advice and products for Marine Communications including for Motor and Sail Yachts. There is also a lot of information about Hurricanes, and how they are monitored at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Hurricanes are a very interesting phenomenon. When they occur, they can be devastating not only for people’s homes, but for their livelihoods. Anything in their path will be extremely vulnerable, from small things like your electricity cables, or broadband from somewhere like o2.co.uk, to much larger things like your house and car, all will be affected. It is interesting that something which is basically just made up of air, can have so much power.
dangerous as they are however, at least there is some way of attempting to predict when they will occur. In the Northern Hemisphere, hurricane season runs from the first of June to the end of November, while it usually occurs in the Southern Hemisphere from January until March.
A hurricane usually starts its life as a tropical thunderstorm. When several of these storms begin to rotate around a tropical depression, or area of low pressure, its winds increase. If they reach over 74 mph, it will then be classified as a hurricane, or tropical cyclone. If given the opportunity, these hurricanes can then take warm, moist air from the ocean which gives it energy.
The rotation of the winds is made even more powerful by something called the ‘Coriolis Effect’. This is the name given to the process which occurs as a result of the rotation of the earth. This causes the winds to deflect in a specific direction, counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise for the Southern Hemisphere.
Hurricanes can lose their power when the supply of warm, moist air is removed, such as over cooler waters, or over land. Their dynamics are extremely interesting and their power must be respected.