Questions for Thought

  1. Hurricanes are areas of low pressure, so why don't hurricanes have fronts like areas of low pressure in the mid-latitudes?

  2. You are planning a vacation in northwestern Australia. During what three-month period should you not book your trip in order to avoid the greatest risk of experiencing a tropical cyclone. Explain your answer.

  3. Explain how each line of the following traditional eastern Caribbean saying relates to the information contained in the graph of hurricane frequency in Figure 11.3 (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, for example, are in the eastern Caribbean).

    "June, too soon.
    In July, bye and bye.
    August, come they must.
    In September - remember!
    Come October, all over."

  4. Jamaica is surrounded by deep ocean waters, while Grand Bahama Island is surrounded by shallow waters. Given a direct landfall by hurricanes of similar intensity, which island will experience the greater storm surge? Why?

  5. Which will weaken a hurricane most rapidly - moving over cool ocean waters or over warm land surfaces? Explain.

  6. If a hurricane returns to sea after crossing land (for example, as Andrew did after it crossed southern Florida), on what side of the exiting storm would you expect the greatest storm surge potential? Explain.

  7. Explain why the following prose from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Wreck of the Hesperus is sound science (hint: refer to the Weather Folklore in Chapter 8).

    "For I fear a hurricane;
    Last night the moon had a golden ring
    And tonight no moon we see."

  8. Often, if one hurricane follows in the wake of an earlier hurricane by just a few days, the second hurricane sometimes weakens. Suggest a reason why this might happen.

  9. In what general sense (clockwise or counterclockwise) do winds blow around a hurricane in the Southern Hemisphere? Consider a Southern Hemisphere hurricane making landfall. On what side of the location of landfall (left or right) would you expect the largest storm surge? Explain.

  10. When a named tropical system from the Atlantic Basin crosses Central America, it typically weakens. If the system emerges from Central America and regenerates into at least a tropical storm, it is renamed. Assume that in 1999 Hurricane Floyd forms in the Atlantic, crosses Central America and weakens into a tropical depression. Upon emerging into the eastern Pacific, it strengthens and becomes a tropical storm. Given that seven storms had already been named in the eastern Pacific Basin by that time, what will Floyd's new name be?

  11. Comment on the potential for hail reaching the ground from thunderstorms in the eye wall of a hurricane (consult Figure 11.8).

  12. Examine the list of tropical storm and hurricane names in Table 11.2. Notice that in the list for the eastern Pacific Basin there are names beginning with the letters X, Y, and Z, but these letters are not used in the names in the lists for the Atlantic Basin. Why do you think this is?

  13. Parts of the movie Jurassic Park take place on an island that is supposed to be west of Costa Rica (this would place the island in the eastern Pacific Ocean at about 10oN latitude). At one point in the movie, someone says that "a hurricane is approaching the island from the west." What is scientifically inaccurate about this statement?