Hurricane Andrew of 1992
Hurricane Facts
Intro
Are you interested in hurricanes? I think they are very interesting, but can be very dangerous. Hurricanes can also be called cyclones or typhoons.
Hurricane Facts
Hurricane Season is from June 1st through November 30th in the Atlantic, and is from May 15th until November 30th in the Eastern Pacific. Hurricanes form over oceans with warm, moist air, When they form the are only called a tropical disturbances but as their wind speeds grow faster they change. As soon as their wind speeds hit 74 mph they become a hurricane. Hurricanes are sorted into five categories using the Saffir-Simpson scale. A category one hurricane has 74 mph winds to 95 mph winds, a category two is 96 mph to 110 mph, a category three is 111 mph to 129 mph, once a hurricane reaches a category three it is considered a major hurricane. Then a category four has wind speeds of 130 mph to 156 mph, and last a category five hurricane has wind speeds of 157 mph and up. A hurricane maintains this much strength by taking in heat from warm ocean water air and releasing it through water vapors in thunderstorms. And a hurricane weakens when it hits landfall because it doesn't have the ocean water vapor to support it. Even though almost all hurricanes are categorized the same way, they are not called the same name. Some hurricanes are called typhoons. They are basically the same, the only difference is where the storm is located. In the Atlantic they are called hurricanes and in the Western Pacific they are called Typhoons.
History
There have been many deadly and costly hurricanes through out history. There are some that are known more than others. Hurricane Katrina is the most costly hurricane of all time to hit the U.S, costing about $105,840,000,000. This name, along with many others, has been taken off the list of names for hurricanes. If a hurricane is really strong and and damages a lot of land or causes many deaths, the hurricane's name will be taken off the list. Hurricane Katrina caused so much damage they took the name "Katrina" off the list. In 1950 hurricanes were named by the phonetic alphabet. In 1953 they changed it to where they used the regular alphabet but they only used female names. In the 1979 they started using male and female names to name hurricanes. So there was six lists made up of all the names in alphabetical order that they alternate through each year.
Damage caused by Hurricane Andrew
This is one of the 99% mobile homes destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.
Hurricane Andrew Tracking map
This picture is a tracking map of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. This shows where it made landfall, what category it was, and the wind speeds.
Damage caused by Hurricane Andrew 2
This is one area of many that had damage inflicted by Hurricane Andrew. All together this costed over $45,000,000,00.
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the second most costly hurricane to hit they U.S. It caused $45,561,000,000 of damage where it made landfall in South Florida. It also took 26 lives. Hurricane Andrew started out as a tropical depression off the Eastern coast of Africa on August 16, 1992. It very soon became a category one hurricane with 74 mph winds. Once it hit South Florida on August 24th, 1992 it was a category 5 hurricane, with wind speeds of 175 mph, the fastest wind speeds that the U.S. has ever seen (over to the right is a satellite image of Hurricane Andrew around this time). Hurricane Andrew destroyed over 256,000 homes and 99% of mobile homes were destroyed in South Florida and in South Louisiana. This hurricane also had a storm surge of 17 feet!
Hurricane Artical Close
As I said hurricanes are very interesting but can be very dangerous. They can cost billions of dollars and hundreds of lives. We are so thankful to have the technology we have today to tell when they are coming so we can prepare.