Sarah RoseLab 8 Hurricanes Section 8Group Members: Ana, Ian, and RobertQuestion 1Xena most closely followed Type B. Hurricane Xena went traveled pretty evenly westuntil it reached Hispaniola. At Hispaniola it began the bend northward slightly but hits Cuba’s Eastern side (82 knots) then along Cuba’s northern coast (97 knots) before it hit the main land in Florida’s panhandle (128 knots). The hurricane’s peak winds steadily increased on its path to Florida. This is probably due to warmer waters which provides latent heat that fuels hurricanes. Question 2Hurricanes are areas of low pressure that form in the tropical latitudes, these stormsrequire warm shallow waters because the latent heat from those waters give energy to the storm. When these storms move over cold water or land they weaken becausethey are cut off from their power source. The forward motion of storms is dictated by 500hPa winds, which are subject to small and large-scale weather systems. Tracking a hurricane is very challenging because even the factors that compose a hurricane (low pressure system, warm tropical waters, 500 hPa winds ect.) have factors. There are so many moving parts that have to be considered to perfectly trackthe route of a hurricane. For example you know the hurricane is about to enter a part of the ocean that historically has warm waters but if the warm sections of the water is too shallow the hurricane might lose strength when you were expecting it togain momentum. Question 3A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system. They cause a lot of damage sometimes more then the weather system itself. Surges happen when winds push the water surface and cause a pile up higher then regular sea level.“Storm surge is a very complex phenomenon because it is sensitive to the slightest changes in storm intensity, forward speed, size (radius of maximum winds-RMW), angle of approach to the coast, central pressure (minimal contribution in comparison to the wind), and the shape and characteristics of coastal features such as bays and estuaries. Other factors which can impact storm surge are the width and slope of the continental shelf.”Summary and Conclusion Hurricane Katrina was the most costly hurricane in history resulting in economic and structural damages as well as nearly 2,000 deaths. For such a devastating Hurricane, Katrina's wind speed when it hit land was only about the strength of a strong category 1 hurricane (140 mph). Much stronger Hurricaneshave been recorded and struck US cities but none have done as much damage. Katrina didn’t form in the deep tropics like other past deadly hurricanes, but Katrinadeveloped much closer to the States. Most of the deaths associated with Katrina happened in the days following the hurricane and were due to electrocution, explosions, contamination and other Hazards caused by the hurricane but not directly from the hurricane. The global risk of hurricane disaster has increasing due to human activity. Populations are concentrating along the world's coastlines, increasing the chances of something like this happening again. Improved forecastingand emergency response have lowered hurricane casualty rates, but as more people and infrastructure move into harm's way, storms are likely to become more destructive.As the mayor of New Orleans I think I would have only issued an optional but strongly suggested evacuation. I think it’s nearly impossible to issue an effective mandatory evacuation, in order to do that steps must be taken weeks in advance andhurricanes change hourly. Hindsight is 20/20 but given the information at hand that Katrina was barely a level 1 hurricane and cities experience that type of destruction all the time I don’t think I would have seen the urgency to evacuate a large city like New Orleans. Sadly that was the wrong decisions but a lot of the causalities had to do with the Mayors response to the hurricane after it had dissipated. In this lab we learned the very basics of hurricane tracking and some of the factors that effect the accuracy of predicting a storm’s path. The tracking part of this lab was fairly subjective because we didn’t have a proper ruler and our group used our own digression when it came to the hurricanes direction. Potential errors could have come from that but it seemed to follow hurricane path type B from the lab so I think we go it pretty close. Misjudging Xena’s path would have given us slightly different temperature and pressure estimations. This lab helped me better understand the sources of error when it comes to tracking the potential paths of hurricanes and why meteorologists always show several potential storm