Hurricanes and the Coriolis Effect

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Hurricanes and the Coriolis Effect Hurricanes have been an active weather phenomenon throughout history. Thanks to our modern equipment, they are easy to track, yet still difficult to predict. Their destructive force causes millions of dollars in damage each time they hit land. We use male and female names to name them. They begin as many storm clouds over warm water and begin to form a tropical storm when enough of them gather. The rotating earth sets the storms in motion. The Coriolis Effect, which is the apparent deviation of an object, greatly influences the path of a hurricane, and must be taken into effect when trying to predict its path. Hurricanes are known around the world for their destructive and deadly force. They are migratory tropical cyclones that originate over oceans in areas near the Equator, and consist of high-velocity winds blowing circularly around a low-pressure center, known as the eye. We will look further into the specific details regarding the composition of the hurricane later. The word "hurricane" comes from a tribe of people who lived in Central America thousands of years ago. They believed in a god who caused violent storms that raged upon the land from the sea. The god's name was Hurakan, and his storms were called hurakans. After European explorers arrived in the Americas, they changed the name to hurricane, which is the term we use today. Hurricanes, like all weather, are not just a modern dilemma. They have brought disaster to people in all eras, even well known historical figures. For instance Christopher Columbus, on his first voyage to America, founded the first non-Indian town on the island of Hispaniola, which he named Isabella after his queen. Why isn't this ... ... middle of paper ... ...nes? Fortunately for those of us who live in Michigan, hurricanes don't affect us like they do the coastal states. In the past, the only two things that hurricanes have done to Michigan are 1) swirl a mass of rain-laden clouds in our direction and gave us a day or two of steady rain, and 2) prevented masses of high-pressure to move eastward, giving us days of calm and clear weather. With the advent of Doppler radar, hurricanes are very easy to track, and the National Weather Service does a good job of issuing warnings and watches, giving people ample time to leave town until the storm is over or board up their house. But no matter how well you can track a hurricane, or even predict its path, constructing buildings to withstand winds in excess of 200 miles an hour (Hurricane Camille, 1969), flood waters, and torrential rains, still remains a very formidable task.

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