SEVERE WEATHER

 

Most of the class will be spent watching the Video "Hurricane" (Questions below)

We will start with a few words about North Carolina Hurricanes

 

From last time:

The Map for the class "Synoptic Climatology of North Carolina"

m_nc_synoptic_map.gif (443547 bytes)

 

 

 

Number and category of 20th Century hurricanes affecting

North Carolina, by decade.

 

 

1901- 1910

 

1911-

1920

 

1921- 1930

 

1931- 1940

 

1941- 1950

 

1951- 1960

 

1961- 1970

 

1971- 1980

 

1981- 1990

 

1991- 1999

 

Category 5

Devastating

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Category 4

Very Strong

-

-

-

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

Category 3

Strong

2

-

-

1

1

4

-

-

2

3

Category 2

Moderate

-

-

-

2

-

2

-

-

1

2

Category 1

Weak

6

3

5

3

5

2

4

1

1

2

Tropical Storm

-

2

-

1

4

4

2

6

4

3

 

Not rated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

 

7

 

2

 

7

 

 

Video: Hurricane

This is most of a 60 minute Nova program called ‘Hurricane’. Most of what we are showing concerns hurricane Gilbert in 1988, so some of the records may be a little out of date, following Hugo and Andrew (and even Fran and Floyd) in later years.

In watching the video, look for answers to the following questions.

  1. A hurricane in North America is known by what name in Asia?
  2. Why was the track of Hurricane Elena in 1985 unusual? What was the probable cause of this?
  3. What is likely to happen when you host a ‘Hurricane Party"?
  4. What does the shrinking of the size of the eye of the hurricane usually signify?
  5. Hurricanes are measured on an intensity scale from 1 to 5. What category was Hurricane Gilbert? How frequent are storms of this category. Name at least one more storm of this category.
  6. In the 1960’s Project Stormfury was going to solve all our hurricane problems. How? What happened?
  7. Kerry Emanuel discusses the causes of hurricanes in a very brief way. Link his statements to those in your text for a more complete set of features needed to create hurricanes.
  8. The (then) Director of the National Hurricane Center, Bob Sheets, indicates that the forecast of hurricane position 24 hours ahead is improving by about 0.5% per year (perhaps now a little more). Scattered throughout the video are hints as to why this is happening. Sheets also says that these improvements are offset by other considerations. What are they?
  9. Would you have evacuated Galveston?

 

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