Extreme Natural Disasters: Hefty Hurricanes

Hurricanes can be good for the environment with the rain, but they can also destroy a life. Hurricanes can topple buildings, uproot trees, tear down power lines, and create floods. Hurricanes create powerful winds and a substantial amount of rain. Large amounts of water can create mold, which can be extremely dangerous. Hurricanes, or any large storm, affect many countries and families. Hurricanes are immensely unsafe and unpredictable, both because of their own power and the fact that tornadoes can materialize from their circular speeding winds.

Hurricanes form through an intricate process. Before they get the status of “hurricane,” they must meet specific conditions. Meteorologists separate the life of a hurricane “into four stages: (1) tropical disturbance, (2) tropical depression, (3) tropical storm, and (4) hurricane” (Emanuel 453). A tropical disturbance is a region or area where rain clouds are beginning to form. The clouds form when moist air rises and becomes cool, which cannot hold as much water vapor as warmer air, and these clouds may rise to great heights. Meteorologists classify these towering thunderclouds as cumulonimbus. These cumulonimbus clouds normally create heavy rains “that end after an hour or two, and the weather clears rapidly” (Emanuel 453). However, if the set of conditions is correct for a hurricane, more clouds will continue to form, creating more energy. If this build-up produces wind speeds of up to 38 miles per hour, the storm is classified as a tropical depression. A tropical depression is a low pressure area near the ocean that creates wind, which in turn evaporates more seawater, feeding the thunderclouds. The winds swirl slowly at first, then, as the pressure becomes even lower, the winds pic...

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