When you consider of the danger ahurricaneposes to the unlucky people catch in its path , your first thought is probably the ferociouswindsthat crash ashore and buck up just about everything exposed to the component . While the winds are destructive and the wing rubble is a serious peril to anyone caught in the way , the greatest and quiet killer in a tropicalcycloneis its storm billow . Here ’s what you need to know about them .
It’s a sudden inundation of seawater.
The strong nothingness of a landfalling tropic cyclone thrust it inland . The flooding that result from storm rush is only a few feet deep most of the time , but the worst upsurge — like those seen in Hurricane Katrina — can overstep 20 foot or higher . A storm billow comes up quickly and can push weewee miles inland in the most vulnerable spots during the strong violent storm .
Storm surges aren’t caused only by hurricanes.
Hurricanes are most closely associated with storm surges , but they ’re not the only storms that can bear on water inland . tropic depression and tropical storms can also deluge coastlines if their nothingness are strong enough . Powerful winter storms can also generate a sprightliness - menace storm surge . Ablizzardthat hit the East Coast inJanuary 2016produced a storm surge in Cape May , New Jersey , that was slenderly higher than the one recorded there during Hurricane Sandy a few twelvemonth earlier .
A storm surge’s tracking and timing determine its severity.
Meteorologiststell multitude not to pore on the precise track of a tropical cyclone since the impacts can extend hundreds of miles from the center of the tempest . But when it fall to a tempest surge , track really does matter . The worst winds in a violent storm happen in the right-hand - front quadrant of its eyewall , or the part of the storm that ’s in front of the eye and to the right field of its advancing drift . This spot sees the secure winds influence by the forward motion of the storm , and it ’s where the nothingness is able to push the most water with it .
Timing also determine how much flooding the great unwashed at the coast will experience . Coastal flooding will be worse if a storm hit land at eminent tide since water will be a few feet higher . That couple of feet at high lunar time period does n’t seem like much , but it can mean the conflict between a few road rinse out and a few neighborhoods deluge by water .
Wind speed is an even bigger factor.
The fury behind the surge is wind . The National Hurricane Center claims that95 percent of storm surgeis force back by the air current — the other 5 percent is water that rises above ocean point due to low air pressure at the center of the storm . A ecumenical ( and obvious ) formula of thumb is that a stronger storm will produce a more destructive violent storm surge , but surge also depends on other factors like a tempest ’s forward amphetamine and the size of its wind field .
Wind powered Superstorm Sandy’s devastating storm surge.
Even though Hurricane Sandy had only 80 mph winds when it made landfall in New Jersey on October 29 , 2012 , it was one of the most destructive storms to hit the United States in recorded history . The scourge violent storm surge that Sandy drove into coastal community of interests was the solution of the huge size of the storm ’s wind champaign .
When Sandy made landfall , the orbit covered by its tropical storm force winds ( 39–74 mph ) extend more than 1100 mile from South Carolina to Maine . The enormous arena made up for the storm ’s relative deficiency of saturated intensity , allowing it to labour tremendous amounts of water supply into the coast .
Hurricane Katrina ’s historic tempest billow along the northerly Gulf Coast in August 2005 was also drive by the sheer sizing of the storm . Katrina was a monolithic hurricane with scale - top out class 5 fart to boot . Katrina weakened by the time it reached the coast , but the size of it of the storm and its former speciality still push tremendous amounts of water into Louisiana and Mississippi .
Curvy coastlines amplify a storm surge’s destruction.
As if getting reach with a bad storm were n’t bad enough , the very shape of the coastline itself will learn how much of an impact a violent storm surge will have on coastal communities . Shallow water offshore and concave bays and intake will exacerbate a tempest surge and make the inundation deeper than it would have been otherwise .
Slow-moving storms do more damage.
After Hurricane Hermine made landfall in Florida in 2016 and go into the Atlantic Ocean , its impingement along the Mid - Atlantic and New England coastlines worry meteorologists because of how long they expected the storm to linger near farming . Forecasts called for Hermine to meander off the coast of New Jersey at or near hurricane strength for four full 24-hour interval before beginning to dissipate . gratefully , the tough - shell scenarios did n’t arrive to pass , but the threat was real .
Even though Hermine was n’t reckon to make another landfall , the exceptionally long length of the violent storm — with powerful winds botch up inland for day at a time — threatened to return a tumid tempest surge along the sea-coast . A slow - moving storm will stimulate more legal injury than one that affect through in a topic of hours .
Read More fact About Weather :
A edition of this storey was published in 2016 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
Related Tags
