Hurricanes

by Allaby, Michael; Garratt, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780816047956
• ISBN10: 0816047952
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Targeted for middle school and high school students, teachers, and general readers, Facts On File's updated and expanded Dangerous Weather series is a collection of compelling illustrated books on the extreme weather conditions that threaten our environment and population. Michael Allaby, a noted weather and climate writer, offers an authoritative yet lively text that is enhanced by numerous line illustrations evoking the far-reaching effects of treacherous weather activity. Hurricanes, Revised Edition is a fascinating examination of this weather phenomenon and its impact on extensive areas of our planet. Included are an extensive index, a bibliography of current sources for further research, and an appendix of Standard International Units and their equivalents. Sidebars are also interspersed throughout the text. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Michael Allaby is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 40 books, mainly on science, natural history, and environmental topics

Table of Contents

Preface: What is a hurricane?	vii
Introduction	xi
Why Hurricanes are Tropical	1	(23)
What happened when Mitch struck?	1	(8)
Convection	4	(2)
Lapse rates and stability	6	(3)
Where hurricanes happen	9	(7)
Intertropical convergence and the equatorial trough	11	(5)
Jet Stream	16	(1)
Hurricane and storm tracks	16	(8)
Weather fronts	19	(3)
Global wind systems	22	(2)
Air and Sea	24	(33)
Ocean currents and sea-surface temperature	24	(13)
General circulation of the atmosphere	26	(7)
Trade winds and doldrums	33	(2)
George Hadley and Hadley cells	35	(1)
Potential temperature	36	(1)
Warming, convection, and low pressure	37	(9)
Adiabatic cooling and warming	41	(2)
Air pressure. highs, and lows	43	(3)
Storm clouds	46	(11)
How clouds are classified	47	(3)
Latent heat and dewpoint	50	(2)
Evaporation. condensation. and the formation of clouds	52	(5)
Inside the Storm	57	(23)
How a hurricane begins	57	(7)
Christoph Buys Ballot and his law	59	(5)
Vortices	64	(8)
The Coriolis effect	69	(2)
Conservation of angular momentum	71	(1)
What happens inside a hurricane	72	(8)
Why the wind blows	73	(5)
Wind force and Admiral Beaufort	78	(2)
Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones	80	(29)
Hurricanes in the United States and Caribbean	80	(9)
Hurricanes that reach Europe	89	(7)
Air masses and the weather they bring	93	(1)
Depressions and the jet stream	94	(2)
Asian typhoons and cyclones	96	(8)
Monsoon	99	(5)
Arctic and Antarctic hurricanes	104	(5)
What a Hurricane Can Do	109	(31)
Hurricane damage	109	(7)
Kinetic energy and wind force	111	(3)
Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale	114	(2)
Daniel Bernoulli and how hurricanes can lift roofs	116	(6)
Storm surges	122	(8)
Historic hurricanes	130	(10)
Living with Fierce Storms	140	(45)
How hurricanes are named and tracked	140	(7)
How hurricane damage is predicted	147	(5)
Will global climate change bring more hurricanes?	152	(9)
El Nino	154	(2)
The solar spectrum	156	(5)
Protection and safety	161	(5)
Appendixes
Hurricanes in history	166	(11)
Cyclone names	177	(6)
SI units and conversions	183	(2)
Bibliography and further reading	185	(4)
Index	189

Excerpts

Praise for the previous edition:
New York Public Library's 1998 Books for the Teen Age
Mitch, the hurricane that devastated Central America in 1998, was one of the most savage storms of the century. With the intensification of climate research in recent years and rising concern that humans may be altering the global climate, funding agencies have increased the resources available for evaluating the evidence of global warming and its likely consequences.
Hurricanes, Revised Edition is a fully revised, authoritative guide to these awesome storms. It contains new and updated sidebars explaining concepts from atmospheric science, such as potential temperature; the link between the jet stream and midlatitude depressions; why the wind blows; and the conservation of angular momentum—the principle that explains the way hurricane winds accelerate as air spirals inward. Measurements are given in familiar units, such as pounds, feet, miles, and degrees Fahrenheit, and in each case the metric or scientific equivalent has been added. Appendixes list some of the most notorious hurricanes of the past and the set of names that are used to identify tropical cyclones in different parts of the world. Also, a comprehensive bibliography of further reading and other informative sources is featured at the end of the book. Sources include useful books and a large number of web addresses.