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Hurricanes: The Greatest Storms on Earth : Feature Articles

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Few things in nature can compare to the destructive force of a hurricane. Called the greatest storm on Earth, a hurricane is capable of annihilating coastal areas with sustained winds of 155 mph or higher and intense areas of rainfall and a storm surge.

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How Do Hurricanes Form? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

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Look at the graph on this page

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AP/David J. Phillip

It will take several months to work out the full impact of Hurricane Harvey on the US economy.

So far, the consensus is that it won't cause that big of a hit to the overall economy's growth, although its personal impact already is and will continue to be far greater.

"We expect the effects of Harvey to be substantial and lasting," UBS economists said in a note. They added that it's difficult to forecast the full impact, even by comparing this to previous hurricanes, because each one is unique.

Here's how economists are calculating its impact:

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Hurricane Harvey could be the costliest natural disaster in US history - here's how we'll know the true cost

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It will take several months to work out the full impact of Hurricane Harvey on the US economy. So far, the consensus is that it won't cause that big of a hit to the overall economy's growth, although its personal impact already is and will continue to be far greater.

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This is a map of mile per hour winds from a hurricane.

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Hurricane Science: Ingredients for the Perfect Storm

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August and September mark peak hurricane season in the Atlantic basin. Here's why the conditions in these months make them more likely to form there. Photos: NASA/NOAA

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Overwhelmed by the news from Texas and Louisiana since Hurricane Harvey made landfall? Here is an overview of coverage by The New York Times that will be updated as events continue.

The latest can be found in Tuesday's live storm briefing.

What's happening on the ground

At least 30 deaths and many more injuries are believed to be related to the storm, which has inundated parts of the Houston area with more than 40 inches of rain. In some places, totals have surpassed 50 inches, setting a record for the continental United States. At least a quarter of the land mass of Harris County, which includes Houston, is flooded, according to Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District.

Harvey is now hitting Louisiana, too, and storm surge alerts are in effect along hundreds of miles of coastline from Port Bolivar, Tex., to Morgan City, La. Here are some maps of its path and destruction.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, calling the storm " one of the largest disasters America has ever faced," said the region would not recover anytime soon. The flooding was so devastating that even the people who describe weather for a living struggled to convey its scope. More than a trillion gallons of rain fell in Harris County in four days - enough to "run Niagara Falls for 15 days," Mr. Lindner said.

Some residents grappled with whether to stay in their homes, after Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston made the difficult decision not to issue a mandatory evacuation order. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Turner announced a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m.

Houston's hospitals struggled to treat victims, and the upheaval closed schools across Texas. The brutal storm also put the brakes on the area's recent economic upswing and revealed vulnerabilities for the oil and gas industries.

Here are some of the most powerful photos of the devastation. If you can do so safely, please share your own photos and videos here, or leave us a voice mail message. And listen to Tuesday's episode of "The Daily" podcast to hear from some people who fled the storm.

Who is responding and how?

Emergency dispatchers were overwhelmed over the weekend as dramatic rescues unfolded across the state. Many people shared an image of nursing home residents in waist-high waters before they were rescued. Clifford Krauss, a Times reporter, filed a dispatch from his own flooded house. The rescues continued on Monday and Tuesday, and some people went to great lengths to take their pets with them to safety.

President Trump visited Texas on Tuesday after signing a federal disaster proclamation over the weekend.

Houston opened its convention center as a mass shelter, as did Dallas. On Tuesday evening, the mayor of Houston announced that the Toyota Center, an 18,000-seat indoor arena, would open to relieve the pressure on the convention center. Tens of thousands of people are in shelters. In San Antonio and in Houston, some of them spoke to Times reporters about their fears for what awaited them back home.

In comments on our storm coverage, Times readers shared their shock, sympathy and encouragement for those awaiting rescue.

What made Harvey so powerful?

What set Harvey apart was its rain. Once the storm made landfall, it essentially stalled, turning roads in Houston and elsewhere into raging rivers. Scientists say it was fueled by a deadly combination of environmental factors.

"This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced," the National Weather Service tweeted Sunday morning.

For many people, the images of inundated streets and victims plucked from rooftops evoked comparisons to Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, survivors of Katrina saw themselves in the scenes from Houston.

How you can help

Many organizations are helping victims on the ground. Here are a few of them; a fuller list can be found here.

* The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund was established by Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston and is administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

* The Houston Food Bank, the Galveston County Food Bank and the Food Bank of Corpus Christi are accepting online donations.

* The Houston Humane Society and the San Antonio Humane Society are helping animals affected by the storm.

* Save the Children is accepting donations.

Some scams are circulating online. Here are a few things to watch out for.

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Hurricane Harvey: What Happened and What's Next

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Overwhelmed by the news from Texas and Louisiana since Hurricane Harvey made landfall? Here is an overview of coverage by The New York Times that will be updated as events continue. The latest can be found in Tuesday's live storm briefing.

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Hurricane Irma is expected to pose at least a temporary setback to Florida's sizzling economy as it takes aim at the heart of the nation's citrus production and batters its robust tourism industry.

But if the storm causes extensive damage that discourages incoming retirees and tempers runaway population growth, the economic effects could be more substantial, analysts say.

More: Hurricane Irma: Where is the powerful storm now?

More: Hurricane Irma: A complete list of cruises canceled, delayed

More: Why Hurricane Harvey could hurt U.S. economy: 'Houston is not just an oil town anymore'

Florida is the nation's top citrus producer and also leads in sugarcane, tomatoes, watermelons and fresh market cucumbers, according to state government data. Farmers are trying to drain fields of excess water, secure equipment and ensure water pumps work in the event of flooding, says Lisa Lochridge, spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

"With a storm of this size, people are very, very concerned," she says.

The most immediate worry is the vast orange crop in central and south Florida. Risks to the crop have increased since forecasts altered the storm's projected path westward, says Chris Hyde, agricultural meteorologist at MDA Weather Services.

"It's really in the cross-hairs of this thing," he says, adding that a vast majority of the citrus crop could be destroyed.

Since Wednesday, orange futures prices have risen 11%, and a similar impact could ripple through grocery stores across the U.S., depending on the actual damage, Hyde says.

Tourism, the state's largest industry, also faces major disruptions. Florida had 112.4 million out-of-state and international visitors last year and tourism generated $90 billion in economic activity. As of Thursday, the Walt Disney World theme parks in the Orlando area continued to operate as normal but some nighttime events were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday. SeaWorld and Legoland were both closed Friday.

Some major cruise lines canceled voyages out of the nation's big three cruise ports - Port of Miami, Port Canaveral and Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades. And Orlando Melbourne International Airport will suspend commercial flights and close the terminal at 6 p.m. ET Saturday.

The total economic losses from the storm are likely to be similar to Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, says Kwame Donaldson, economist at Moody's Analytics. Moody's projects Harvey-induced losses from property damage and lost economic output will total $108 billion, though other estimates have been closer to $160 billion.

For Florida, the nation's fourth-largest economy, that could slice estimated third-quarter economic growth of 3.7% by as much as a percentage point, Donaldson says. The pullback would be offset in subsequent quarters as homes and businesses are rebuilt and consumers make delayed purchases.

For the U.S. economy, the decrease in economic gains would be a more modest two- to three-tenths of a percentage point, he says.

If the hurricane hits Georgia it likely will have lost strength by then, causing minimal economic damage, says Jeff Dorman, professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Georgia. But he says $1 billion to $2 billion of crops, particularly cotton, are at risk.

Florida's economy has resuscitated dramatically since the mid-2000s housing crash put it among the hardest-hit states during the Great Recession. The long bull market that began in 2009 has replenished the investments of retirees and so they again have been flocking to the state, says Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida. Hispanic immigration also has been brisk.

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Home prices have recovered, though unlike average national housing values that have reached new heights, they're still about 15% below their pre-crisis peak. But the state's economic and job growth was more than double the U.S. pace last year. And before the hurricane, Donaldson forecast growth of 3.9% this year and 5.6% in 2018, up from a healthy 3% last year.

Snaith doesn't believe Irma will significantly affect the state's turnaround. "I think, by and large, it's a temporary thing," he says.

But if many homes are destroyed or severely damaged, "The attractiveness of the real estate market could be affected in the short term," says John Quelch, dean of the business school at University of Miami.

A widespread impact also could slow population growth, and, in turn, the economy.

"It could very well be felt in people deciding not to move to Florida - which is the golden goose of Florida's" strong economic gains, Donaldson says.
Contributing: Florida Today
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2xVZSHX

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Hurricane Irma could cool Florida's hot economy

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CLOSE Hurricane Irma is expected to pose at least a temporary setback to Florida's sizzling economy as it takes aim at the heart of the nation's citrus production and batters its robust tourism industry. But if the storm causes extensive damage that discourages incoming retirees and tempers runaway population growth, the economic effects could be more substantial, analysts say.

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"We have plenty of time to watch this," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Irma has met favorable conditions for picking up strength as it moves across the Atlantic. The hurricane is feeding off warm waters, which are typical during this time of year. "There's practically no vertical wind shear, which is what would really prohibit storms from forming or strengthening, because it kind of keeps the top separate from the bottom, and they need to be stacked to really strengthen," said Brian McNoldy, who studies cyclones at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Irma also hasn't run into much dry air, which usually chokes off the flow of humid air to storm clouds. "For a tropical cyclone, you want to ingest as wet and humid conditions as you can find," McNoldy said.

Irma currently poses no threat to land areas. The hurricane is located about 600 miles west of the Cabo Verde islands, off the northwest coast of Africa. It should reach the Lesser Antilles, a collection of islands in the Caribbean, in the next four or five days, meteorologists say. It's being steered along by a subtropical high-pressure system that remains parked over the north-central Atlantic all season long. "If it's a really strong system up there, it tends to keep hurricanes more toward the west," McNoldy said. "If there's a weakness in it somewhere ... hurricane tracks will find their way north a little bit quicker."

The high-pressure system could launch Irma toward any number of targets, including the Bahamas and Bermuda and U.S. states like Florida, North Carolina, and Texas, McNoldy said.

"There's no certainty. It has to go somewhere," he said. "We just don't know where."

Harvey, now designated as a tropical depression, was, as far as hurricane predictions go, a well-forecasted event; meteorologists warned of the storm's catastrophic effects several days before it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. Harvey met their dire expectations, causing unprecedented flooding, the displacement of thousands, and nearly 40 deaths. Harvey and Irma both formed during peak hurricane season, which runs from mid-August to late October. But Harvey's devastating aftermath has put any other storm coming down the pike this season under more scrutiny than usual.

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"We have plenty of time to watch this," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami. Irma has met favorable conditions for picking up strength as it moves across the Atlantic. The hurricane is feeding off warm waters, which are typical during this time of year.

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America seems to be a magnet for devastating hurricanes these days.

This year, Harvey came out strong with its horrific toll on parts of Texas and Louisiana. Now Irma, downgraded slightly Friday morning to a Category 4 storm from its most recent days as a Category 5, has left destruction in its wake as it plows through the Caribbean and Cuba - and is on path to hit Florida Sunday morning.

It's too early to know if this will be a particularly bad year, as the average number of major hurricanes in the U.S. per decade is roughly six. But averages, important as they are, mean little to those who have to brace for impact.

We know how damaging such natural phenomenon can be - and how costly, at many levels, from emotional loss to rebuilding costs in the billions of dollars. The devastation is not surprising, once you know how much energy is involved.

Consider this: In one day, an average hurricane releases as much energy as half a million atomic bombs, a force to be reckoned with.

When the sun heats an ocean to more than 82 degrees, moist hot air rises up meeting cooler air - creating thunderstorms. Upper-level winds and surface winds come together, forming a circular pattern called a tropical depression. (Why circular? See below.) Then, when the winds reach 74 miles per hour, a hurricane forms, sometimes as wide as 500 miles in diameter, nearly the size of Texas, reaching heights of nine miles. This short National Geographic info-video is a good introduction to hurricanes.

Remarkably, hurricanes spin counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. This differential spinning is due to Earth's rotation. If the Earth didn't rotate, winds of up to 300 miles per hour would howl from the poles to the Equator and back. But Earth's spin, and because the equatorial regions spin a bit faster than the regions at higher and lower latitudes, affects the air currents due to what is known as the Coriolis effect. In the first half of the 19th century, French engineer and mathematician Gustave Gaspard Coriolis proposed it as an explanation as to how the motion of objects is affected when they are on a rotating basis or reference frame (like the spinning Earth or a merry-go-round).

Think of the Earth as a big ball rotating from West to East. (So, if you are looking at it from the top, it will rotate counter-clockwise.) Air currents near the equator get pushed a bit faster than those closer to the poles, with those above the Equator getting pushed to the right and those below it to the left. It is this pushing that causes hurricanes in the North to rotate counter-clockwise and those in the South, clockwise. This also explains why hurricanes don't cross the equator, as the Coriolis effect there is too weak to get the air spinning fast enough.

In any case, let's hope that Irma misses the American mainland - or, at least, that it downgrades even more if it does so.
Marcelo Gleiser is a theoretical physicist and writer - and a professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is the director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth, co-founder of 13.7 and an active promoter of science to the general public. His latest book is The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher's Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything. You can keep up with Marcelo on Facebook and Twitter: @mgleiser

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America seems to be a magnet for devastating hurricanes these days. This year, Harvey came out strong with its horrific toll on parts of Texas and Louisiana. Now Irma, downgraded slightly Friday morning to a Category 4 storm from its most recent days as a Category 5, has left destruction in its wake as it plows through the Caribbean and Cuba - and is on path to hit Florida Sunday morning.

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Most hurricanes that hit the US come from the same exact spot in the world

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The wind at the beach is whipping at 95 miles an hour. Waves 16 feet tall are crashing down. Even sharks are heading out to calmer waters. A hurricane is on its way.

These powerful storms have different names depending on where in the world they form. They're called hurricanes if they occur in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and eastern Pacific Ocean. In the western Pacific Ocean, they're known as typhoons; in the southern Pacific and Indian Oceans, they're called cyclones.

Scientists know them all as tropical cyclones. As many as 150 occur around the world each year.

How a hurricane forms

Hurricanes are strong storms that start in the ocean and have winds of at least 74 miles an hour. In the Northern Hemisphere (the part of Earth north of the equator), hurricanes generally occur between mid-August to late October. In the Southern Hemisphere (the area south of the equator), storm season is between April and December, with peak storm activity around May and November. During these times, oceans have warmer water, which is what a hurricane needs to form.

Hurricanes begin when a tropical depression forms in the ocean. A tropical depression is a line of rain showers and weak thunderstorms that circle around an area of low air pressure. If the water is at least 79°F, a hurricane might form.

The low air pressure causes the hot, humid air from the ocean to rise in a spiral shape. As that warm air rises, it releases heat, cools down, and condenses into gusty bands of clouds and storms. The low-pressure area continues to suck up hot, moist air, and the spiral gets stronger and faster.

When winds reach 39 miles an hour, the tropical depression becomes a tropical storm. When winds reach 74 miles an hour, it's officially a hurricane.

As a hurricane moves over cooler water or hits land, it loses the warm water that fuels it and begins to weaken. But dangerous winds can still cause damage, and storm surges-when a strong storm pushes ocean water ashore-can flood coastal areas with more than 20 feet of water. Heavy rains and floods can continue far inland.

Understanding a hurricane's strength

Hurricanes are classified by wind speed and the amount of damage that scientists predict the storm will cause when it reaches land. (In the United States, this is done by the National Hurricane Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

For example, a Category 1 storm has wind speeds of 74 to 95 miles an hour and will probably damage some homes and cause a few power outages. But a Category 5 hurricane is considered a powerful, destructive storm. These storms have winds of 156 miles an hour or more and will likely cause so much damage that people must abandon their communities, which will need months to clean up.

These rankings can help predict the severity of an approaching storm, but any hurricane can be devastating. For instance, Hurricane Katrina was only a Category 3 storm when it hit the U.S. Gulf Coast around Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005. The storm caused over $100 billion in damages, and nearly 2,000 people died.

Predicting the path

Meteorologists can predict the path that a hurricane will travel-and where it will make landfall-by analyzing changes in temperature, cloud formations, and air circulation patterns. That data is gathered by specialized aircraft, satellites, and weather surveillance radar from above the Earth. Other scientific devices that float in the ocean can measure winds, waves, and air and sea temperatures.

The information from these tools is used to create computer forecasting models used by scientists to learn when a storm is forming, where it might travel, and how severe it will be. That can help local officials release warnings or even evacuation orders in order to keep people safe from the coming hurricane.

Naming hurricanes

Once a storm's wind speed reachers 39 miles an hour, it becomes a tropical storm and is given a name. The name is chosen from a list of about 20 names issued by the World Meteorological Organization at the beginning of the hurricane season. They alternate between female and male names.

But you won't see David, Katrina, Andrew, or Laura on that list-those hurricanes were so destructive that the names have been removed. And you won't hear of any hurricanes starting with Q, U, X, Y, or Z, since few names begin with those letters.

More powerful storms in the future?

In the future, scientists don't expect to see more hurricanes, but they do expect more powerful ones. That's because hurricanes get bigger more quickly in warmer water. As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, scientists predict that future hurricanes will be rainier and longer lasting.

How to survive a hurricane

The safest thing to do is to follow local instructions and leave the area, or evacuate, if officials say you should. Here are other tips for staying safe if a hurricane is headed your way.

Before a hurricane
* Know the evacuation routes in your neighborhood, and make sure your parents have put gas in the car.
* Check your yard to see if any branches are broken on trees and alert an adult if they are. (Those branches could break off and soar through a window!)
* Bring in anything that could blow away, like garbage cans and outdoor furniture.
* Close all your windows, storm shutters, blinds, and curtains.

During a hurricane
* If you haven't evacuated, stay indoors where it's safe.
* Fill all bathtubs and sinks with clean, cold water in case water lines are damaged or the supply becomes contaminated.
* Ride out the storm in an interior room, such as a hallway or closet on the lowest level of your house.
* Never go near a window, even if it's boarded up.
* If it looks like the storm is going to hit your home, lie on the floor under a table or another sturdy object.
* Limit the use of cell phones to free up space for emergency calls.

After a hurricane
* Listen to weather reports to make sure the storm has passed. A calm sky might be just the hurricane's eye, or center, and more storm fun will be on the way.
* If you evacuated, return only when officials say it's safe.
* Check all food for spoilage. Remember: If in doubt, throw it out.

Adapted from the Nat Geo Kids book Extreme Weather by Thomas Kostigen, revised for digital by Laura Goertzel

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The wind at the beach is whipping at 95 miles an hour. Waves 16 feet tall are crashing down. Even sharks are heading out to calmer waters. A hurricane is on its way. These powerful storms have different names depending on where in the world they form.

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The economic cost of Hurricane Irma could rise as high as $300bn (£227bn) as the storm lashes Florida, damaging homes, businesses and key crops including orange groves.

Analysts said some $2trn of property lay in the storm's path, and also pointed to the potential impact on US food prices. Florida is the second-largest produce grower in the US and the world's second-largest producer of orange juice.

Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the board of the German reinsurance giant Munich Re, said on Sunday that Irma was "a major event for Florida and also a major event for the insurance industry".

The hurricane has already unsettled the financial markets, sending insurance stocks falling and orange juice futures surging last week. The price of contracts for November deliveries of frozen orange juice concentrate spiked as investors feared the worst after the destruction Irma wrought in the Caribbean.

Barrie Cornes, an analyst at the stockbroker Panmure Gordon, put the overall economic cost at $300bn, with insurance firms potentially on the hook for between $100bn and $150bn when the clean-up operation gets under way.

Florida also grows other important crops including tomatoes, grapefruits, watermelons and sugar cane. Irma could wipe out as much as 20% of the state's citrus crop, an significant part of its economy, analysts have suggested.

Alan Konn of the Chicago-based commodity trading firm Price Asset Management said: "The damage to the orange crop is twofold, both short term disruption but also to the extent crops are completely destroyed."

Irma could also have a longer term impact because it takes a few years to grow an orange tree to production, which would limit supply for an extented period, he said in an interview on the financial website MarketWatch.

The insurance industry is still assessing the cost of Hurricane Harvey, which caused severe flooding in parts of Texas last month. Initial estimates suggest the final bill could be as much as $100bn. That compares with economic damage of $176bn inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which included $82bn of insured losses, according to the Swiss Re Institute.

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Economic cost of Hurricane Irma 'could reach $300bn'

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The economic cost of Hurricane Irma could rise as high as $300bn (£227bn) as the storm lashes Florida, damaging homes, businesses and key crops including orange groves. Analysts said some $2trn of property lay in the storm's path, and also pointed to the potential impact on US food prices.

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Incredible footage from space shows massive lightning storms in Hurricane Irma