What Are Hurricanes? By Burt Cotton At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Katrina, Vince, Rita are the subject of lead stories in all the journals around the world. They have created a stir in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Can you guess who they are…?

No, they are not some super successful people or any genre of Hollywood stars. They are the names of hurricanes. Sounds familiar? Do you know what is a hurricane?

Hurricane is a tropical cyclone with a speed of around 74 miles per hour characterized with heavy rains and winds. This is the result of low pressure system that is usually created around tropical areas. They are a part of the natural circulation system that moves heat from the tropical regions to the places of higher altitudes.

Hurricanes are known by several names in different continents of the world. In the North Atlantic and South Atlantic region Hurricane is the official term used for tropical cyclone. The other parts of world in Northwest Pacific Ocean name hurricane as Typhoon. The hurricanes are called severe cyclonic storm in the north Indian Ocean.

All these nomenclatures refer to the similar phenomenon of low pressure in tropical areas. The only difference between a hurricane and cyclone is that cyclone is any low pressure atmospheric activity in the southern hemisphere. Where, hurricane is an atmospheric activity with in the northern hemisphere of the globe.

Hurricanes are also called the reverse heat engines. Reason being, they happen due to the condensation of water around the tropical regions. The condensation or rising water vapors in air cause a series of reaction to trigger on the hurricane. As the air heats up around the warm ocean, the water becomes even warmer. As a result the air moves towards the ground with heavy thunders carrying the ocean water with it.

After knowing what is a hurricane, you will be even more amazed to know the power of a hurricane. A hurricane releases heat at the rate of fifty to two hundred trillion watts every twenty minutes. This energy is equivalent to the explosion of ten megaton nuclear bomb exploded every twenty minutes.

The hurricanes are divided into five categories according to their effects. Category one has the weakest winds. A hurricane above the wind speed of 67 miles per second is a category five hurricane.

There are certain factors that form a hurricane. The primary factor towards the formation of hurricane is temperature. The sea level temperature more than 26.5 degrees up to a depth of 50 meters is a sign of worry. The warm water or the water vapors are a major source of hurricane occurrence. Low temperature is actually conductive for hurricane formation.

Hurricanes are predictable when temperatures are the highest. Consequently, different continents will be having dissimilar months for the highest possibility of a hurricane formation. North Atlantic has witnessed 217 hurricanes in the month of September since 1944 till date. The peak time for hurricane arrival in the North Indian Ocean is April to December.

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