Saffir-Simpson Tornado Research Paper

Here are some things hurricanes can destroy, houses, boats, cars, trucks, and stores. A positive thing is that people know when a hurricane is coming. An effect is that Hurricanes affect people by boarding up doors and windows. Another effect is that Hurricanes can cause damage to buildings and vehicles.

Hurricanes are a tropical cyclone, which means a rotation of closed low-level circulation of clouds and thunderstorms that originate from tropical and subtropical waters. Hurricanes are categorized by five categories, which determine the wind speed, the surge, and the pressure of a storm. These five categories help people be aware of how dangerous hurricanes can be: 1-minimal, 2-moderate, 3-extensice, 4-extrme, 5-catastrophic. Categories 1 and 2 have winds between 74-110 miles per hour, with a flow of 4-8 feet of water, and a sea level pressure of 980-979 millibars.

Category 5 hurricanes are the highest level of impact and size a hurricane can be; therefore they can be very catastrophic and one must prepare (especially when you live in Florida). There are many ways you can prepare efficiently for a hurricane, even if you can not accurately predict when, where, or how hard it will hit.

Hurricanes emerge from the tropics of the Atlantic Ocean close to the earth’s equator because it is attracted to warm water with a temperature of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (Today’s Science, October 2004). As the temperature increases, it changes the liquid water into water vapor that forms clouds of warm, moist air causing it rise.

When warm water, moist air, and strong winds collide and create a rotating bundle of thunderstorms create a rotating bundle of thunderstorms and clouds a hurricane is formed. Hurricane send when they lose their source of energy by traveling over land or cold water. Hurricanes occur in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Hurricane season is either from June 1-November 30 or mid-August to mid-September. Hurricanes can last for a few hours to at least 2 weeks depending on its size. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale rates, or categorizes, hurricanes. Hurricane names rotate each year but, if a hurricane is strong enough that name is retired.

There are many categories for hurricanes, but a category 5 is the worst. But there are also many ways to prepare for a hurricane. But there are also safe, easy, and right ways to prepare for a hurricane also. There are many ranks that a hurricane can have. The rinks go 1-5 a five being the worst. According to “Google”, there have been 33 hurricanes that have retained a category 5 status in the Atlantic. And 17 had been recorded to have 175 mph wind or greater.

In order to impart destruction of such magnitude, Katrina had to be fearfully strong. The intensity of a hurricane is usually based on classification according to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. This scale categorizes hurricanes by their maximum sustained winds ranging from Category 1 to Category 5. When it comes to Hurricane Katrina, it's no surprise that it was rated as a Category 5 hurricane. To get a feel for how strong such a hurricane might be, it's important to know that Category 5 hurricanes have sustained winds greater than 157 mph. In comparison, Katrina's highest sustained winds were calculated to be 175 mph.

Most hurricanes that hit the United States begin either in the Caribbean or the Atlantic. Many of the worst start as seedlings coming off the coast of Africa. Like all tropical cyclones, a hurricane needs the warm water of the tropics, which feeds a storm with energy, in order to form. Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. The warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface. Because this air moves up and away from the surface, there is less air left near the surface. Another way to say the same thing is that the warm air rises,

An event is only correctly identified as a disaster when the damage is too great for an affected region or city to handle or respond to the event with their own resources. To be more direct, a disaster is an actual event that results in more disruption and losses than a community is capable of handling on their own and they must therefore rely on assistance from other communities, the state or federal government (Smith 2012). A disaster, regardless of the nature of the event, in one region or city, may not qualify as a disaster in another region or city. It is all based on the impacted area’s capability to cope with the event on their own.

On the morning of August 29th, 2005, and unimaginable event occured. The destruction this event would bring to the people of New Orleans, Louisiana was nothing that could be predicted. It was known as Hurricane Katrina. The Gulf Coast of The United States is where Katrina struck. When the storm first awoke it had been rated as a Category 3 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale or also referred to as SSHWS is what is used in the classification of hurricanes. This system differentiations tropical storm or tropical depressions into five different categories based on the level of their intensity of the winds. With reaching winds up to 140 miles per hour and width holding up at 400 miles wide from

hurricanes. They form out in the ocean near the coast of Africa. Through the hurricanes journey,

Hurricanes like to start off in warm ocean waters of at least 78F (26C) they thrive off of the heat content of the warm tropical and subtropical oceans. In order for hurricanes to start their rotation they have to be at leat 5% latitude from the equator, because the equators spin is zero and the more you increase moving toward the poles known as the Coriolis force the faster the spin. The damage hurricanes cause are toward trees, homes, buildings, flooding, and storm surges which increases along with the category f the hurricane. When come in contact of an hurricane you must know all evacuation routes, make sure your home is up to codes for withstanding hurricanes, and have storm shutters, tools, supplies, and a first aid kit.

A hurricane is categorized by its wind speed using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, there are 5 categories with category one being the slowest and category five being the fastest. Category one is when the hurricane Winds are 119 to 153 km per hour (74 to 95 mph) which is faster than a cheetah, Category five is when the hurricane Winds are Winds more than 252 km per hour (157 mph) which is similar, or close,

The category five designation of hurricane Katrina can be very misleading for those who are not familiar with the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale, or the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. “Wind engineer Herb Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson created what has become known as the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale (SSHS) to provide an indication of a hurricane’s intensity based on its maximum sustained winds.” (Allen) The scale, from one to five, is setup to be very easy to understand for the general public, however it still does not clearly convey the amount of damage that can be sustained from a category one hurricane as opposed to a category five hurricane. A category one hurricane is classified as having winds between seventy-four and ninety-five mile per hour sustained winds with a damage rating being described as having very dangerous winds will produce some damage. Category two has winds between ninety-six and one hundred and ten miles per hour, category three has winds between one

A category three hurricane is defined as having wind speeds from 111 to 130 mph with a storm surge of nine to twelve feet, and doing some structural damage to small residences and buildings. A category four hurricane sustains winds of 131 to 155 mph with a storm surge of about thirteen to eighteen feet. In a category four hurricane, shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down and there are some complete roof structure failures on small residences. Land lower than ten feet above sea level can become flooded, resulting in evacuations of residential areas that are as far inland as six miles. A category five hurricane sustains winds of greater than 155 mph with a storm surge greater than eighteen feet. In a category five hurricane, there is complete roof failure on many buildings and residences with some buildings being completely blown over or blown away. At this point, all signs, trees and shrubs are blown down, there is complete destruction of mobile homes, and excessive flooding can occur (White p.30).