Irma is the most powerful hurricane in history, since measurements over the Atlantic Ocean began, but it is not the first to hit Florida.
In August 1992, Florida was hit by Hurricane Andrew, which killed 65 people, damaged over 120,000 homes, and completely damaged about 20,000 homes.
Hurricanes are meteorological manifestations which consist of strong winds followed by rain. They can last up to several weeks.
Hurricanes are the biggest storms, while the whirlwind destroys everything in front of you. Black clouds and wind warn of the hurricane, which on the devastating road can travel more than thousands of kilometers.
In essence they are storms which rotate rapidly, while being characterized by low pressure in the center, strong vortex, the axis of which is in the heart of the hurricane, and spiral transmission of clouds with thunder, which carry large amounts of rain.
The vortex forms over large areas of relatively warm water. The hurricane gets its energy from the evaporation of water from the surface of the oceans, which is followed by clouds and rain, when the moist air cools.
Depending on the power and location, hurricanes are called differently, and so over the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean are hurricanes, typhoons – in the Pacific Northwest, tropical storms and cyclones – the South Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
By strength, hurricanes are classified differently, but the Sapphire-Smpson scale is most often used, according to the uninterrupted speed of wind movement. For a wind to be a hurricane, its minimum speed must reach 119 kilometers per hour. The fifth largest category of a hurricane is that its speed moves at speeds in excess of 252 kilometers per hour.
Hurricanes most often form from late summer in both hemispheres of the earth, while the hurricane season in the northern hemisphere is usually in the first half of September.
The hurricane begins to form over the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles off the west coast of Africa. It is created by small breakdowns of fast air currents, which travel from east to west over Africa. The breakdown, which scientists call the east wave, can be caused even by a child stepping into the desert sand. From this a small vortex can be created from the sand which can then cause the development of storm clouds in the atmosphere. The series of storm clouds can eventually develop into small organized system of thunderstorm clouds. Such systems travel westward and when they come in contact with the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean can turn into major tropical storms and then even hurricanes.
Hurricanes “feed” on moist air over the warm waters of the oceans in the region of Ecuador. Warm air rises above the surface of the ocean. This creates a lack of air above the sea, which means that the pressure decreases. This causes amplification of current from the surrounding regions with high pressure in which the hurricane forms. Newly arrived air also heats up and freezes. Warm moist air rises to the heights and cools, the moisture in it condenses and rain clouds are created.
The practice of naming hurricanes with female names was started by American soldiers who fought during World War II over the Pacific, causing the largest number of hurricanes. However, the U.S. Meteorological Agency in 1979 decided to include male names in the list of hurricane names, in order to respect gender equality.
There are a total of six lists for hurricanes over the Atlantic Ocean and they rotate each year. The names of the hurricanes that caused great damage are dropped from the list. Such a practice is in order not to cause panic among the population.
