Now that's intense!As Hurricane Isabel This article is about the 2003 hurricane; there was also a Tropical Storm Isabel during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season Hurricane Isabel was the costliest and deadliest hurricane in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. twisted up the Atlantic coast this September at 100 miles per hour, it blew apart homes, flooded streets, and dropped ... frog eggs? Yep. One Connecticut resident was surprised to find his lawn sprinkled with small slimy eggs. The babies hitched a ride from North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. on Isabel's mighty winds. But while it rained frogs on shore, Isabel dumped even more surprises on hurricane scientists before it made landfall land·fall n. 1. The act or an instance of sighting or reaching land after a voyage or flight. 2. The land sighted or reached after a voyage or flight. . Using new heavy duty instruments, researchers studied for the first time how warm ocean water and air interact to change the intensity (wind speed) of powerful, Category 5 hurricanes. Before now, scientists could only get the inside scoop on low-intensity storms. "No one's been able to make these kinds of measurements before, because the wind destroyed the instruments," says hurricane expert Peter Black of NOAA NOAA abbr. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. NOAA - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and ). A hurricane is born when ocean temperatures climb above 27[degrees]C (82[degrees]F) and the air is three to four degrees cooler. To even out this temperature difference, "the air is always pulling heat energy from the water surface," says Black. The ocean water evaporates (changes from a liquid to a gas) and gives its energy to the air--a process called air-sea transfer. As the warmed air rises, it stirs up the wind, cools, and condenses (opposite of evaporation) to form thunderclouds. As the air pulls heat from the ocean, the hurricane intensifies (see SW, Oct. 18, 2002). Intensity is still the largest mystery in hurricane science. Scientists know how the transfer process works in tropical storms (winds of 39--73 mph). But not in raging storms like Isabel. "Different things happen in high winds than in low winds," says Black. His team will use the study's data to create a formula for predicting hurricane intensity. These predictions will help residents and emergency personnel prepare for a hurricane--and be on the lookout for in search of; looking for. See also: Lookout raining frogs! HOW BAD WAS IT ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5? The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a scale classifying most Western Hemisphere tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of "tropical depressions" and "tropical storms", and thereby become hurricanes. is a rating used to give an estimate of possible property damage and flooding expected along a coast when a hurricane strikes land. CATEGORY 1 (74-95 MPH) Damage primarily to trees and unanchored mobile homes; some coastal flooding. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CATEGORY 2 (96-110 MPH) Some damage to roofs, doors, windows, trees and shrubbery; flooding damage to piers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CATEGORY 3 (111-130 MPH) Some structural damage; large trees blown down; flooding near shoreline and possibly inland; mobile homes destroyed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CATEGORY 4 (131-155 MPH) Extensive damage to doors and windows Doors and Windows is a multimedia disk by the Irish band The Cranberries. Track listing
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CATEGORY 5 (MORE THAN 155 MPH) Complete roof failure and some building failures; massive evacuation; flooding causes major damage to lower floors of all shoreline buildings. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SOURCE: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE; NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER The U.S. National Hurricane Center, located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, is the division of National Weather Service's Tropical Prediction Center responsible for tracking and predicting the likely behavior of tropical depressions, tropical storms and |
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