Lab 17b: sky: severe weather: hurricanes and tornadoes
Sections:
- Where does the energy come from?
- Where is it all going?
- Heat engines: cars, steam engines, hurricanes, tornadoes
- Convection drives everything
- Radiation->conduction->convection
- Coriolis effect
- Where do hurricanes form, where do they go, and why?
- Where do tornadoes form, where do they go and why?
Part one: Sea temperatures
- look up the surface sea temperatures off the west coast of Africa and Mexico
- why would hurricanes form there?
- what is the difference between radiation, conduction and convection
- solar radiation hit sea water, which is this?
- warm water heats the air next to it, which is this?
- warm air rises, which is this?
- warm air holds more water (evaporated water), is this a form of stored energy?
- what happens as this warm, moist air rises?
- if you dribble water from the north pole to the equator while the globe spins, which way will the water go?
- look up a "heat engine". how is a hurricane like a smokestack?
- if a storm gets large (like 100 km across), with one part closer to the equator, what will happen?
- why do storms in the southern hemisphere rotate clockwise, while those in the north rotate counter-clockwise?
- draw a diagram of a hurricane over water, including temperatures from sea level to 50,000 ft (15 km)
Part two: coriolis effect, hurricanes
- if you dribble water from the north pole to the equator while the globe spins, which way will the water go?
- look up a "heat engine". how is a hurricane like a smokestack?
- if a storm gets large (like 100 km across), with one part closer to the equator, what will happen?
- why do storms in the southern hemisphere rotate clockwise, while those in the north rotate counter-clockwise?
- why would a hurricane form off the coast of Africa?
- where would it go?
- what about one off the coast of Mexico?
- why do all hurricanes veer north in the northern hemisphere?
- why would a hurricane crossing from the Atlantic over Florida as a category 1 storm become a cat 5 when it reaches the gulf of Mexico?
- what is the ocean surface temperature in each place?
- look up the Saffir-Simpson scale-how is this similar to the Richter scale?
- draw a map of several Pacific hurricanes that have reached Hawaii and caused damage: Iwa, Iniki and others.
- look up "tornado alley", where is it?
- look up the ocean sea temperature in the gulf of Mexico
- look up the air temperature in Canada (say Alberta) in the spring, summer and fall
- imagine this cooler air moving south, while the warm moist air from the gulf move north-what happens?
- where?
- as these happens, is the coriolis effect present?
- so?
- why do all tornadoes move in the north east direction (look up the Tri-state tornado of 1925 and others: https://www.thezebra.com/resources/home/worst-tornadoes-in-us-history/)
- look up the Fujita scale-how is it similar to the Richter scale?
- Draw a map of three of these huge tornados tracing their path
- why would folks open all of the windows in their house before running into a storm shelter?
- watch the opening clips of the film "twister" and find out what Fujita rating this tornado was in the film
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