A hurricane is a high-speed movement of air mass that originates in tropical regions. Basically it is a set of storms that revolve around a center of low pressure causing winds and rain. In the northern hemisphere, this turn is counterclockwise, while in the southern hemisphere the turn is equal to clockwise. These phenomena can extend their duration for up to two weeks and have winds that exceed 100 kilometers per hour.
The areas prone to hurricanes are those corresponding to the Bay of Bengal, the Philippines, China, and the so-called Atlantic Basin. The latter is usually the most recognized for its media coverage, including the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. There, the hurricane-affected season runs from June to November. Precisely for these areas where they occur most frequently, they are also known as "tropical cyclones". In reality, this name of hurricane is linked to the name that the Mayan god of winds and storms received, called thus: hurricane.
The hurricane begins to form from moisture produced by evaporation and heat from the water, when an air mass begins to spiral upward.
The eye of the hurricane stays warm causing the condensation of the water; bands of storms swirl by its sides. After a while, hurricanes gradually begin to dissipate.
This can be due to different circumstances. One of them may be the fact of going ashore and losing contact with the warm water that provides sustenance; another may be to stay for a long time in the ocean, removing the heat from the water that allows it to continue; It is also possible that it is swallowed by another area of low pressure; or entering cold waters is another possibility. Since the 1960s, governments like the United States, through their science and technology agencies, have tried artificial dissipation methods, where the strategies are to induce some of these causes of ending a hurricane phenomenon.
Hurricanes, like most other natural phenomena, can be measured in relation to their intensity, and the magnitude with which they manifest. For this a scale called Saffir-Simpson is used. According to this scale, which goes from point 1 to 5, those corresponding to the lowest density will have points between 1 and 2, while 4 and 5 will be those of high intensity.
Hurricane phenomena are often referred to by a particular name. For example, Hurricane Katrina, which occurred in 2005, caused more than 2,000 deaths in New Orleans, United States. It is considered the largest natural disaster in that country, and at the same time, the one that caused the most economic costs to the State, in terms of repairs in the city (75 million dollars).
Today, thanks to the means provided by technological developments, it is possible for scientists to do predictions of what the path of a hurricane will be like, although there are still many unknowns regarding this issue. Certainly, with the latest damage caused in the United States, studies aimed at anticipating its formation and evolution will tend to take hold.
