![]() And the cycle continues, drawing more warm, moist air into the developing storm and moving heat from the surface to the atmosphere. This rising air is replaced by more warm, humid air from the ocean below. This latent heat warms the cool air, causing it to rise. The condensation releases heat called latent heat of condensation. As it rises, its water vapor condenses to form storm clouds and droplets of rain. What else is happening? Well, as we know, warm, moist air from the ocean's surface begins to rise rapidly. These are some of the basic forces at work when a low-pressure center forms in the atmosphere - a center that may turn into what people in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Caribbean regions call a hurricane. This movement is called a pressure gradient force. When warm, low-pressure air rises, cool, high-pressure air seizes the opportunity to move in underneath it. This air then rises to higher altitudes where air molecules are less compressed by gravity. When air heats up, its molecules move farther apart, making it less dense. The heat absorbed by the pavement actually fries the egg, not the heat coming down from the sun. To understand this principle, think of a person frying an egg on the sidewalk on a hot, sunny day. The air closest to us is also the warmest, as the atmosphere is mostly heated by the land and the sea, not by the sun. The gas molecules at the bottom, or those closest to the Earth's surface where we all live, are compressed by the weight of the air above them. In fact, the atmosphere weighs in at a combined 5.5 quadrillion tons (4.99 quadrillion metric tons). The gases that make up Earth's atmosphere are subject to the planet's gravity. ![]() To understand how a hurricane works, you have to understand the basic principles of atmospheric pressure. So 75 percent of the year, it's safe to say that someone somewhere is probably worrying about an impending hurricane. 30, while the Southern Hemisphere generally experiences hurricane activity from January to March. In the Northern Hemisphere, the season runs from June 1 to Nov. During this period, hundreds of storm systems spiral out from the tropical regions surrounding the equator, and between 40 and 50 of these storms intensify to hurricane levels. Some researchers even theorize that the dinosaurs were wiped out by prehistoric hypercanes, a kind of super-hurricane stirred to life by the heat of an asteroid strike.Įvery year, the world experiences hurricane season. Also known as tropical cyclone and typhoons, these fierce storms can churn the seas into a violent topography of 50-foot (15-meter) peaks and valleys, redefine coastlines and reduce whole cities to watery ruin. Few events on Earth rival the sheer power of a hurricane. And as hurricane Sandy made its way to the Eastern coast of the United States in October 2012, meteorologists called the storm unprecedented in terms of its potential for damage and fatalities, due to its path along the densely populate urban coast. ![]() Less than two weeks later, thoughts turned to hurricane Irma, among the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever measured. ![]() Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in August 2017, flooding one of the largest metro areas in the United States. Hurricanes are powerful storms, and captivate human imagination. Drone picture of a damaged road left by Hurricane Iota in San Andres, Colombia, Nov. ![]()
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