Hurricanes!

What Causes Hurricanes?What is the Effect of Hurricanes?

How Can We Prevent Them?

By Sarah Woodard

What are Hurricanes?

• Hurricanes are windstorms accompanied by heavy rain storms– Wind blows at least 74 miles per hour!

• Hurricanes can appear in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.

• Hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise around an “eye”– The “eye” of a hurricane is a calm spot in the middle of the

strong winds and torrential downpour of rain

– Source: FEMA for Kids: Hurricanes

What Causes Hurricanes?

• Hurricanes happen when warm sea water interacts with warm air above it.

• Differences in pressure cause water evaporating off of the ocean to spiral into a tornado shape.– The eye of the hurricane is where the air is warmest.

• The water releases energy, which causes more water to evaporate, which increase the amount of rain and makes the wind move faster and faster.

• When hurricanes travel over cooler water, they eventually lose energy and the air calms down again.– Source: Weather Questions about Hurricanes

What are the Effects of Hurricanes?• When hurricanes travel over land, they can destroy

anything in their path.• Rain from the hurricane can flood land and destroy

property• Winds can knock down trees and power lines,

causing major problems in cities and states.

What Can We Do to Stop Hurricanes?

• Warm air and water are the causes of hurricanes.• Increasing air and water temperatures from global

warming may increase the chances of a hurricane forming.

• By working on reducing pollution around the world, we can possibly lower air and water temperatures.

• One thing we could do to lower air pollution is ride our bikes to and from places so that we don’t have to use our cars because cars produce a lot of air pollution.