Name: Pleasant Lane
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
What causes a hurricane?
Replies:
Hurricanes are caused when a large mass of air is heated up - as it rises
it starts to swirl like water going down a drain (except the air is moving up,
not down). There is more to it than that, but you will have to ask one of the
experts in the general/earth science section, or look it up in an
encyclopedia.
Mortis
Hurricanes are tropical storms. The warm humid air of the tropics rises. As
the air rises, it cools, and the moisture condenses to cloud and rain drops.
Heat energy is released in the condensation process. Tropical storms usually
occur in late summer and fall when the oceans in the northern hemisphere are
at their warmest. When a hurricane makes landfall it loses the tropical
moisture - the fuel that feeds the storm. Hurricanes weaken rapidly over
land.
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.
