A hurricane is more than a point on weather map, and its path is more than a line. A hurricane has several futures. The main features of a hurricane are the rainbands on its outer edges, the eye, and the eye wall. Air spirals in toward the center in a counter clockwise direction and out the top in a clockwise pattern. In the center of the storm, airs sinks and forms a cloud free eye.
The hurricane’s center is known as the eye. It is relatively calm and has a clear area usually 20-40 miles across but sometimes as small as 5 miles or as large as 60 miles. When in the midst of a hurricane strong winds and rain can suddenly stop and the sky clears when the eye comes over a region. Then as soon as the eye moves out of that region rain and wind begins again but from the opposite direction.
The dense wall of thunderstorms surrounding the eye is the eyewall. The circle of thunderstorms around the calm eye has the strongest winds within the storm. Changes in the structure of the eye and eyewall can cause changes in the wind speed which is an indicator of the storm’s intensity. The eye can grow or shrink in size and could double or concentric eyewalls can also form. Concentric walls usually occur in major hurricanes. Concentric walls tend to weaken the storm but they strengthen again when a single eyewall is in place.
A hurricane’s outer rainbands can extend a few hundred miles from the center. These dense bands of thunderstorms range in width from a few miles to tens of miles. Typical hurricanes are about three hundred miles wide. A hurricane rainband is the location where a tornado usually occurs at.
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