This document discusses hurricanes, including how they form, their naming conventions, categorization by intensity, research efforts to better understand them, and safety precautions during hurricanes. It notes that hurricanes form over warm ocean waters and are classified using the Saffir-Simpson scale based on wind speed and potential damage. Many organizations work to track hurricanes and predict their paths to better prepare communities.

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Ashley Asbell
Ms. Tillery
A.P. Literature
18 November 2011
Hurricanes
Winds greater than 200 miles per hour, whole cities flooded within a few hours, families
torn apart and forced to start their lives over again: these are just a few of the things left behind
after a hurricane has made landfall. As one of the most destructive weather related phenomenon,
hurricanes are also one of the most complex forms to understand. How and where they form,
what research is being done, and what to do in the occasion that a hurricane makes landfall are
all important facts to know when dealing with hurricanes.
First off, what is a hurricane? A hurricane is a “large counter-clockwise rotating column
of air that can reach up to two hundred miles per hour and is accompanied by heavy rain, strong
winds, and damaging waves” (“Environmental and Occupational Safety”). Hurricanes can only
form in warm waters, which is why their season usually begins in June and lasts until the end of
November. The first recorded hurricane was in 1851 and since then, over two thousand tropical
storms and hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic Basin (National Hurricane Center).
Before a storm can be classified as a hurricane, it goes through four stages. First, a
tropical disturbance, or, a system of thunderstorms that forms in the tropics and stays intact for
more than twenty-four hours, is produced. Sometimes tropical disturbances start as tropical (or
easterly) waves, which are areas of low pressure that are embedded in the tropical easterly winds.
As the wind speed picks up and the low-pressure system develops a circulating area of wind
around it, the disturbance turns into a tropical depression. If the wind speed reaches thirty-nine

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miles per hour then the low-pressure area is classified as a tropical storm and it receives a name.
Once here the storm can do one of two things, further increase in strength into a categorized
hurricane or fizzle into nothing (Allaby, 57).
As mentioned before, hurricanes are named once they reach tropical storm status, but
what goes into naming these storms? Since 1953, The World Meteorological Organization has
named cyclones from a handful of generated lists that they recycle every six years. Up until
1979, the lists only used women’s name, but now they alternate between genders. The World
Meteorological Organization decided to use names instead of numbers or other identifiers
because names are easier for the media to report on and the general population to remember. If
one year there is a storm that procures too much damage, in cost or lives, then the name is retired
and replaced by one on standby (“Tropical Cyclone Naming”).
The Saffir-Simpson Scale categorizes hurricanes. This scale classifies hurricanes into five
groups based on wind speed and amount of damage. Category One hurricanes have sustained
winds between seventy-four and ninety-five miles per hour with little to no damage. Once the
winds reach between ninety-six and one hundred and ten miles per hour, the storm reaches a
Category Two status and extensive winds will likely follow. Devastating damage accompanies
wind speeds from one hundred and eleven to one hundred and thirty miles per hour with a
Category Three hurricane. Category Four storms bring wind speeds between one hundred and
thirty one and one hundred and fifty five miles per hour along with catastrophic damage. All
other storms with wind speeds of one hundred and fifty five miles per hour or above signal a
Category Five hurricane that entails calamitous damage, or in other words, no one and nothing is
safe (National Hurricane Center).
Some of the most destructive hurricanes since the 1900s have left many lives in a mess.

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The most expensive hurricane known to date was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Katrina swept
through the Gulf of Mexico, breaking the levies of New Orleans and costing the United States
around $108 billion and over 1,000 lives. Although Katrina cost the United States a great deal of
money, the most devastating hurricane to hit the United States hit Galveston, Texas in 1900,
killing over 10,000 people (The Weather Channel). While hurricanes greatly affect the United
States, they have also devastated many other countries. In 1938, New England was hit by a
hurricane that caused over $300 million in damage and took six hundred lives. The worst
hurricane, in context of death toll, to hit a country outside of the United States was the hurricane
that hit Bangladesh in 1970 that took close to half a million lives. That hurricane took the most
lives of any hurricane ever recorded in history (“Hurricanes”).
As stated earlier, hurricanes do not only affect the United States but other countries
around the world as well. To these different countries, they are known under other names such as
typhoons and cyclones. While they are given other names, these three all mean the same thing:
destruction. The northwestern Pacific refers to these storms as typhoons. Places such as Japan,
the Philippines, and Eastern China experience heavy rainfall, high tides, and landslides between
May and October (Hafner, James). Storms that originate in the Indian Ocean are known as
Cyclones. This area experiences the longest storm season, from April to December, but the
effects are still the same.
Once a storm has been spotted forming in the ocean, many people begin working. A
group known as the Hurricane Hunters track hurricanes and gather information on them. The
Weather Channel is a great resource for people to use to monitor the storm’s path and how strong
it is. They gather information from the many forecasters, such as the Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory, the Tropical Prediction Center, and the National Weather Service and

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Association. These groups, along with many others, keep a constant watch on the churning warm
ocean waters and use data to predict the paths of the oncoming storms. For the most part, the
predicted paths are very similar, but every once in a while a storm will throw a few of them off
and a common path will not be determined. A recent hurricane that illustrated this phenomenon
of forecasters that were unable to agree was Hurricane Rita. Two well-known hurricane
prediction centers predicted two very different paths for Rita and within a week, they had
completely switched their predictions. Due to this, more research is still being done to eliminate,
or at least, lessen this problem.
Many organizations are actively at work researching hurricanes. Organizations such as
The Weather Channel, Hurricane Hunters, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), the National Weather Service (NWS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) are all big leaders in hurricane research. They study current and past
hurricanes to find out more information on these magnificent beasts and how to possibly be more
prepared for them in the future. NASA is currently preparing for an investigation set to launch
each summer for three years. They will collect information on Atlantic hurricane formations and
intensity change (Jenner).
When there is a Hurricane headed towards land, whether the storm is just a tropical
depression or a category five hurricane, there is a possibility for damage and as a precaution,
everyone should evacuate. Before evacuating, collect any lightweight items from outside that
could easily be picked up by the wind and bring them inside the house. Board up windows and
doors before leaving to protect ones home from flying debris. After everything is safe and
secure, make sure to check with the local authorities along with informational organizations such
as the NWS or the NOAA for important information regarding the storms. Most coastal areas

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that are at risk of being hit by a hurricane have pre-marked evacuation routes. Families should
gather up their personal belongings and follow those routes to safer places.
If there were some reason one cannot get out of town, then making a safety kit would be
a good thing to do. Some necessary supplies to have incorporated in the kit include items such
as: gallon water jugs, nonperishable and easy to prepare food, flashlights, a battery powered or
hand crank radio, extra batteries, a First aid kit, a multipurpose tool, and sanitation and personal
hygiene items. Another good idea would be to carry other items such as: copies of personal
documents, cell phone with chargers, family and emergency contact information, extra money,
extra clothing, rain gear, a camera for photos of damage, and medications/medical items in case
there is a large amount of damage. Families can also seek out local shelters that their cities might
have or talk to local authorities of what to do (American Red Cross).
After a hurricane devastates an area, institutes, such as the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross are the first on scene to pick up the
pieces of the town or city (Fitzpatrick 259-295). Following Hurricane Katrina, over $126 million
dollars was raised by various groups for hurricane victims. This money, along with countless
supplies, was donated by people from all over the Unites States and other countries around the
world. After a disaster of this caliber, people of all demographics seem to come together to help
their fellow brothers and sisters in their time of need.
Hurricanes: their brute force can wipe out a city in a matter of hours. These storms cannot
be stopped, but many associations are working to understand them and possibly make it so that
people know much more about them; when and where a hurricane is going to hit along with what
the intensity of the storm is and what possible damage there could be. With this information,
families could be prevented from unnecessarily leaving their homes behind and the United States

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as a whole would be safer from these forces of nature.

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Works Cited
Allaby, Michael. Hurricanes. 1997. New York City, New York: Facts On File, INC, 2003. Print.
Dangerous Weather.
American Red Cross. The American National Red Cross, 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
“Environmental and Occupational Safety.” Valdosta State University. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.valdosta.edu/‌finadmin/‌safety/‌WhatisaHurricane.shtml>.
Fitzpatrick, Patrick J. Hurricanes. 2nd ed. 1999. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc.,
2006. Print.
Hafner, James. “Typhoons.” Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Ed. Karen Christensen and David
Levinson. 6 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003. 19-20. Gale Virtual
Reference Library. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
“Hurricanes.” Environmental Science: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K Lee
Lerner. 2 vols. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009. 430-436. Gale Virtual Reference
Library. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Jenner, Lynn, ed. NASA. 14 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011.
<http://www.nasa.gov/‌mission_pages/‌hurricanes/‌main/‌index.html>.
National Hurricane Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National
Weather Service, 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011. <http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/>.
“Tropical Cyclone Naming.” World Meteorological Organization. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.wmo.int/‌pages/‌prog/‌www/‌tcp/‌Storm-naming.html>.
The Weather Channel. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/>.