Hurricanes
Written by: Elizabeth Dodson Hurricane Andrew of 1992
What is a hurricane?
A hurricane is a low pressure system going over warm water near the United States. Hurricanes can be deadly if not evacuated when told. They can damage what ever is in it path. First it is called a tropical storm. Then when it gets a little more wind speed and water it is called a tropical depression. When it gets more water and wind speed it is called a hurricane.
Categorizing and Naming
A hurricane is labeled in a category from 1 to 5. The name of the hurricane scale is the Saffir- Simpson Hurricane Scale. Before hurricanes had names the scientists would use numbers, but the people couldn't understand some of the numbers. So, people invented names like this one: Hurricane Andrew. Figure 1 shows a satellite image of Hurricane Andrew.
Info. about Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was a large hurricane. Hurricane Andrew hit the United States on August 24 th and continued west until August 28 th of 1992. The amount of deaaths were unberable. There were 23 in South Florida plus 3 in the Bahamas. There was a lot of deaths ,but not that many. Figure 2 shows people walking through what was ounce there neigborhood. The cost of Andrew was 25.5 bilion dollars for South Florida. Andrew produced a 17 foot storm surge and 8 feet storm tides.
Hurricane formation
Hurricanes are formed by a tropical depression. Then when it gets a little more water and wind speed it is then called a tropical storm. When it gets enough wind speed and water it is finally called a hurricane. Figure 3 shows a tracking image of Hurricane Andrew. When it turns into a hurricane it gets a category form 1 to 5 and a name.
Some extra info.
Another type of storm is a Typhoon. A typhoon is the same as a a hurricane , but they happen in different places. A typhoon hits near the coast of Japan. A hurricane hits near the coast of the United States.
So, now you know some things about hurricanes and the hurricane picked for the week: Hurricane Andrew. Come back next week to learn about Hurricane Katrina!