Page 22 - AAA

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 20 september

Why some hurricanes linger while other storms die quickly

By SETH BORENSTEIN teorology professor Kerry
AP Science Writer Emanuel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — High-level winds —
This hurricane season is called shear — are
showing how wild and a major issue. These
varied storms’ life cycles winds at about 10,000
can be. feet high can decapi-
Most storms seem to be tate a hurricane. Ma-
tracked for days while ria, the latest storm, has
others appear to pop almost no shear and so
out of nowhere. And it can get more power-
some just linger around. ful, but a wall of shear
Hurricane Jose is pushing hit and is killing Lee,
the two-week mark as it Klotzbach said.Warm
meanders off the U.S. water is a hurricane’s
East Coast. Lee, named fuel — the temperature
a tropical storm last Sat- needs to be 79 degrees
urday, is barely hanging (26 degrees Celsius) or
on as a tropical depres- warmer. When the wa-
sion. ter cools, the storm runs
Harvey formed, died This Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017, GOES East satellite image provided by NASA taken at 7:45 p.m EDT, out of gas. Sometimes
and then came back shows Hurricane Maria as it approaches the Lesser Antilles. the storm runs into cold
to life as a major hurri- Associated Press water and other times it
cane, dumping a record makes the cold water it-
amount of rainfall on four out of five major Not all of these waves ricane season — mid- self by not moving much
south Texas last month. hurricanes — those with survive the trip west. They August to mid-October and churning it up from
Hurricane Katia seemed winds of at least 111 need favorable winds, — it’s Africa that acts as the depths.When storms
to just pop up in the Gulf mph — start out similarly: warm water and moist the chief Atlantic storm go over land, they lose
of Mexico days before They form off the African air to get stronger. Some generator. fuel and eventually dis-
hitting the Mexico coast. coast as unstable waves get strong immediately; Even those less common appear. That happened
Forecasters for days or patches of storminess. others intensify over the ones that form in the to Harvey and Irma.
watched Harvey, Irma, The National Hurricane Caribbean or the Gulf Gulf of Mexico aren’t On average, Atlantic
Jose, Lee and now Ma- Center monitors them, of Mexico. Some even total surprises with me- named storms last about
ria make steady march- giving them yellow, or- don’t get their acts to- teorologists monitoring six days. But there are
es west off Africa before ange or red letter Xs on gether until they cross storm clouds clustering exceptions. One almost
they got named. About forecast outlook maps. over the Pacific, said together a couple days lasted 28 days in 1899.
Colorado State Univer- before they become Hurricane Ginger made
CALL FOR OUR MODEL, GIRL & STRIPPERS sity hurricane researcher named storms.Once a it to 27 days in 1971. Five
Phil Klotzbach. named storm forms, “it’s years ago, Hurricane Na-
The rest of the storms hard to get rid of it” and dine lasted for 22 days.
usually form in the warm it’ll keep going until it’s Starting off from Africa,
and unstable waters of stopped, Klotzbach said. Nadine made three
the Gulf of Mexico, pop- Four things generally kill loops in the unpopu-
ping up from mid-lati- a hurricane: High-level lated central Atlantic,
Tour to the Red Light Lipstixaruba@outlook.com tude normal storm fronts, winds, dry air, cold water forming a track that
District with a Private often early or late in and land. And it’s pretty looks like a long-tailed
Guide & a FREE bottle hurricane season, Klotz- much just chance if they bird. It became a hurri-
of wine... bach said. run into any of those four cane twice, a record 13
During the peak of hur- storm-killers, said MIT me- days apart.q