1. Hurricanes Earth Science Mr. Doe

2. Hurricane Season  Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean officially runs from June 1 st to November 30 th.  Every year scientists try to predict the number of active storms that will occur. Sometimes their predictions are right and sometimes they aren’t.

3. The 2008 Hurricane Season  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted an above average season with 12 to 16 storms, 6 to 9 hurricanes, and 2 to 5 major hurricanes on May 22.  So far there have been 10 named storms: 4 tropical storms and 5 hurricanes.

4. Hurricane Classification  Storms are classified using the Saffir- Simpson scale. Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale CategoryWind SpeedStorm Surge mph (km/h) ft (m) 5 ≥156 (≥250) >18 (>5.5) 4 131–155 (210–249) 13–18 (4.0–5.5) 3 111–130 (178–209) 9–12 (2.7–3.7) 2 96–110 (154–177) 6–8 (1.8–2.4) 1 74–95 (119–153) 4–5 (1.2–1.5) Additional Classifications Tropical Storm 39–73 (63–117) 0–3 (0–0.9) Tropical Depression 0–38 (0–62) 0 (0)

5. Life Cycle of a Hurricane  Hurricanes begin over the Atlantic Ocean between 5º and 20º North latitude.  The water temperatures are very warm causing a lot of evaporation.  As the warm moist air rises it cools off and releases the energy used during evaporation. This causes the storm to grow larger and stronger.

6. Life Cycle of a Hurricane  The warm air causes low pressure to form.  This low pressure is called a tropical depression.  A tropical depression has wind speeds from 0-38 mph.

7. Life Cycle of a Hurricane  The prevailing winds (the NE Trade Winds) push the tropical depression to the west.  As the storm moves west over the warm water it continues to grow in size and strength.  As wind speeds increase the storm’s classification changes from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane.

8. Hurricane Names  2008 Hurricane Names  Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gustav Hanna Ike Josephine Kyle Laura Marco Nana Omar Paloma Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred  Hurricane names run alphabetically.  There are six lists of names that the National Weather Service uses. These lists rotate and names of extremely damaging storms are retired from the lists.

9. Life Cycle of a Hurricane  As the storm moves west its path will bend toward the right. This is caused by the Coriolis Effect.  Storms will travel faster and in more of a straight line over warmer water. They will slow down when they travel over colder water and their paths will curve more.

10. Life Cycle of a Hurricane  Storms will die out (or lose strength) when they travel over colder water and over land.  As a storm dies out, its wind speeds will decrease. As wind speed decreases, the storm will be “downgraded”. A hurricane will be downgraded to a tropical storm and a tropical storm will be downgraded to a tropical depression.

11. Tropical Storm / Hurricane Hanna

14. Hurricane Ike – Sat. 9/6/2008

15. Hurricane Ike - Infrared

16. Hurricane Ike – Monday 9/8/2008

17. Hurricane Ike – Infrared (Mon.)

18. Tropical Storm Josephine

20. Historical Hurricanes - 2007

21. Historical Hurricanes - 2006

22. Historical Hurricanes – 2005

23. Historical Hurricanes – 2004

24. Historical Hurricanes – 2003