Deadly Ocean Storms
Just the word hurricane can breed fear in the hearts of those who have lived through some of the most violent storms to make landfall. Flooding, heavy winds, thunder and lightening are all trademarks of these ocean monsters, but what exactly are they? How and why do they form? We will take a deeper look into hurricanes and what makes them tick.
Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are all the same type of storm, only differentiating in name and location. Ocean storms that form in the southern part of the Atlantic are called hurricanes. Ones that form in the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons, and those born in the Indian Ocean are called cyclones. These monsters don’t just start out as hurricanes, but grow from a tropical depression into a spinning wind and rain destruction machine.
When there are large differences in pressure and temperature over the ocean, it creates a tropical depression, an organized system thunderstorms with a clearly defined size and shape. Once the winds climb over 38 mph, it becomes a tropical storm. As it gains momentum over the ocean and increases wind speed to 74 mph, it graduates to a hurricane.
Once a hurricane is born, it gets a category rating from 1 through 5, based on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, which measures the strength through wind speed. While the most dangerous storms are 3, 4, and 5, never underestimate the power of any hurricane. Even a Category 2 can cause serious damage, or even death.
Approximately 90% of the deaths associated with hurricanes are caused by drowning. When these massive storms are over the ocean, providing conditions stay favorable, the storm continues to gain strength. Once they make landfall, they hit with a powerful punch and slowly weaken.
Notable hurricanes made the history books because of the power in which they hit land and caused billions of dollars in damage. Hurricane Charley pummeled Florida in 2004, one of the worst storms to hit the state, second only to Hurricane Andrew which hit in 1992. Everyone remembers Hurricane Katrina from 2005 and the devastation she wrought through Louisiana.
Understanding hurricanes may help take some of the fear away from their connotation but anyone who has lived to tell the tale of nature’s deadly force knows nothing stops these powerful storms from wreaking havoc on land.
by L.A. DiNardi
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