WEBVTT - How Hurricanes Work 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.640 Hey, everybody. You may not know this yet, and if 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:06.279 you don't, prepare to be blown away. We are creating 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.440 right now the first ever Stuff you Should Know book. 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.280 It's called Stuff you Should Know Colon, an incomplete compendium 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.520 of mostly interesting things. And you can preorder it now, 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.560 that's right. And if you pre order, everyone, there's an 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.400 incentive because you get a free gift. And don't worry 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:24.800 if you've already pre ordered, because you can just head 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.680 on over to stuff you Should Read books dot com. 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.560 It's a very beautiful little web page and it's got 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.400 all the information. And if you already pre ordered, can't 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.519 you just like upload your receipt and get that pre 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:39.120 order gift. Yep, you can, and they will mail it 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:40.720 off to you and you will get into mail and 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:42.760 you say, oh, thank you, don't mind if I do. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.080 And it's a poster that you will love and cherish 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.280 and possibly pass on down to your children as an heirloom. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:50.920 That's right, everyone, We couldn't be more excited about this book. 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.120 It's really coming together. Well, it's us through and through 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.200 and you can go check out some excerpts at stuff 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.160 you Should Read books dot com. Welcome to Stuff you 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:10.440 Should know a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.240 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.200 Charles w. Chuck Bryan over there. Jerry's around here somewhere. 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:23.400 So this is stuff you should know everybody. The Wrath 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:29.840 of God Edition. Hi. Hi, I've been singing that Bob 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.199 Dylan song all day. Oh yeah, you know it's weird. 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.160 I have two and I hadn't realized it until you 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:42.240 just said that. Really, Yeah, my brain is left. Which 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:46.120 song hard Rain is Gonna fall? Her? Yeah? Hurricane Hurricane, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.840 hard Rain is gonna fall? Are you crazy? I guess 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.920 it would. It hadn't even occurred to me. Great song Hurricane. 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.040 Now I'm going to be singing hard Grain is Gonna Fall, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.320 which is not nearly as good as the Hurricane song. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.360 I'm surprised. You know any Bob One song that's shocking? 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:06.960 Those are the two? No more than that? No, that's it. Oh, 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:13.640 I know that one that goes d what's that one? Oh? 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.040 It's all of them? Gotcha? God bless him. He's got 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.079 a new album ount It's great, dude. How many does 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:22.799 that make? M hmm. He's got a lot of records. Well, 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.160 God's great song it is. It was a good movie too, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:30.760 sad I didn't see that. Yeah, Denzel Washington, I believe 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.800 played him, And yes, it's I mean, if you like Injustice, 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.760 you're gonna love that movie. You mean, if you like 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:42.119 movies about fighting injustice, just what you mean? Right, Either way, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:47.080 you're gonna like the movie. I love Injustice. Sadly, there 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.040 are people who say things like that these days. That's true. So, um, Chuck, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.560 we're talking about hurricanes, not the Bob Dylan song, but 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.720 about the actual like weather system, weather disaster, and not 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.680 only I guess you mean typhoons. Uh no, I mean hurricanes, 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.600 but that's the same thing, and so is Chuck, you 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.840 mean cyclones? Kind of yes, all three of those are 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.760 this one and the same. Did you know that? You know? 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.320 I think I knew that and just sort of forgot 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.280 because when I read it, I was like, oh, yeah, 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.680 I think I knew that, right, So, I mean, it 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.880 just depends on where they occur in the world. Basically 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:30.359 that there's I mean, aside aside from exactly you know, um, 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.400 where they occur, where they make land, and then the 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.600 way that they turn and move. They are the same thing. 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:39.240 They start the same way. They're the same uh group 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.120 of of weird you know, weather coincidences that happen to 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.920 assemble into something. And um, hurricanes to me are as 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.840 good as it gets natural disaster wise. I mean, they 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.400 are as interesting as they come. They are so ridiculously 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.120 destructive and then theoretically what they could do if they 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.760 got even worse, which they may. Um, It's it just 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.360 boggles the mind. I'm a hurricane fan in a way, 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.840 but I hate Miami U as far as their university 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:13.160 is concerned. Uh you hate the you No, not really, 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.000 I'm just teasing. Yeah, And I think the other thing 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.839 about hurricanes is so fascinating is it's, um, it's a 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:25.359 regular thing. It's not like a volcanic eruption or a tsunami, uh, 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.719 you know, or an earthquake. It's you know, every year 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:33.520 they're gonna be you know, uh, like a hundred tropical 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.240 storms and you know thirty to fifty of these are 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.080 going to develop into hurricanes. You can count on it, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.599 right Jack. Yeah. And they actually they have seasons, to 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:44.480 tell you the truth, They're depending on where you are 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.560 in the world and the um northern hemisphere, especially in 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.240 the Atlantic You've got what's appropriately called the Atlantic hurricane 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.640 season and it runs from about June one to November UM. 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.200 Down Under in the Southern Hemisphere, they have a hurricane 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:05.000 season that runs from about January to March UM. And again, 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.480 like there's some differences to them, but that's it's essentially 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.160 the same thing. It's just that hurricanes tend to form 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.720 over the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific um, and then 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.760 cyclones are over the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.960 and then typhoons tend to hit the northwest Pacific Ocean 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:27.000 around Asia to the Middle East. That's right. So I 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:32.479 think the Australians would call them cyclones, is that right? Uh? 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.760 And we call them good old hurricanes, that's right. And 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.160 actually hurricane, which since we're just spouting out facts about 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.320 hurricanes at this point right now, it actually comes from 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.800 an old um Mayan word hurrican, which is the name 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.599 for one of their gods of destruction of thunder and 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:53.599 lightning and wind. And I believe maybe rain who brought 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.640 the flood that destroyed almost all people and then made 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.520 it recede because humanity out in too wicked. And if 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.839 that sounds familiar, that's because there's a flood story and 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.760 basically every culture in the world, which makes me really wonder, like, 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.560 what happened? What is everybody talking about that actually may 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:16.680 have happened at some point. I just find that fascinating. Yeah, 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.880 and how hurricane forms can get very convoluted, as we 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:25.360 realized when we UH started diving into this research. And 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.839 we'll describe it in a bit more detail, but you 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:33.680 know me and my Earth Science for kids websites door UH. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.640 In the very simplest of terms, hurricanes form over warm 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.440 ocean waters near the equator and the tropics, and that 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.840 warm moist air rises up and then is replaced by 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.600 cooler air, and then that air warms up and starts 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.640 to rise, and that just causess this cycle that starts 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.000 these clouds to form, and they start rotating and they 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.080 get a little more organized, and if there's enough of 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.360 that warm water, eventually that wind is gonna pick up 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:03.039 and you're gonna get a hurricane, and they move in 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.800 the northern hemisphere, especially in the Atlantic um which we're 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.080 going to kind of focus on Atlantic hurricanes here, but again, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.000 most of the souf we're talking about applies to cyclones 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.360 and typhoons too, but in the Atlantic in particular, they 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.160 usually start off the west coast of Africa and move 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.440 down towards the equator where they slide over through the 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:28.480 Caribbean and then up along Florida, the Carolinas, um sometimes 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.720 to New England, but most of the time they'll hit 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.960 the the Gulf Stream and will be carried up to 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.040 England where they peeter out and show up for a 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.040 pine at the pub. Yeah. And you know, hurricanes will 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.960 they eventually will die out. Um. Landfall will make them 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.840 die out, because like that's the worst part for the people, 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.640 you know, living on planet Earth, because that's where it 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:56.720 hits the land. But that actually means the hurricane is 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.840 dying because there's not that warm water anymore. Um. Or 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.200 the further north they go, the cooler that water gets, 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.640 and that'll just peter her it out as well. Yeah, 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.120 which I mean, if you really think about it, when 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.560 you take all these factors into consideration, just those two 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.640 that it needs warm water and um that it can't 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.120 be over land like a hurricane. Is a startling series 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.680 of coincidences that happen like again and again repeatedly during 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.880 a certain section of the year in certain sections of 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.200 the world, and they it just takes everything being perfect, 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.080 like a perfect storm, but over and over again for 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.120 these things to happen. And like you said, you know, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.080 there's so many different storms that form off the west 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:42.520 coast of Africa or off the uh the yeah, or 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.040 off the west coast of Australia, um, that can form 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.599 into these things, but they don't. They usually don't because 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.000 all of those factors just aren't working just perfectly for 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.960 the thing did not only kind of catch to ignite 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.760 in a way, um, but also to on of developed 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.640 steam and to really pick up and become a problem. Yeah. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.200 And I know what you mean about loving hurricanes in 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.240 a certain weird way. Um. Obviously, the landfall and just 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.000 the destruction is terrible and we don't wish that ever. 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.320 But when you see those images from above of the 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.439 hurricane rotating and how big it is, it's just it's 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.640 humbling and just sort of mind boggling display of nature 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.560 at work. You know. It is that I mean that 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.400 that hits it on the head. It's definitely not all 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.760 the death and property destructs that I'm a fan of. No, 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.600 of course, I'm like, man, I love injustice. I know, man, 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.520 this is what happened to you overnight. So um so, 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.520 let's let's talk about this. Let's talk about how hurricane 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.200 actually forms and then what it forms into. Okay, we're 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:54.120 gonna do the Earth sign. Okay, I'll take over everybody. 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:55.880 I hope you like my voice because that's all you're 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.520 gonna hear for a little while. I think it's the 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.800 listening they're probably you to that. Um do you know 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.240 when we first started this, I couldn't stand my voice, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.880 couldn't stand it. Y. Yeah, I finally reached I reached 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:14.360 the day tent with it. I just ignore it. Um So, chuck, 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:21.360 You've got air, right air over the ocean and over 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.439 the land. The stuff that's closest to the surface is 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:25.600 actually the warmest, which, as you know, like if you've 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.480 ever been skydiving, is really cold up there. I haven't. No, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.600 it's really cold up there, trust me. Um. And when 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.280 you um or like if you're ever like if you 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.360 climb a mountain or something, it's always cold up there. 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.560 And one reason why is because I've never done it. 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:45.640 The just trust me, trust me. The upstairs of my 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.120 house is cooler, and it shouldn't be. It should be 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.040 much warmer because heat rises in your house. Yeah, but 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:53.920 the a C up there, there's fewer rooms. It just 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:58.200 really Okay, you're making this our science thing way hard. 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.000 So the air at the surface of the Earth is 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.240 warmer because it gets warm by the Earth or by 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.160 the ocean, right open. Ocean temperatures kind of tend to 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.440 warm with the seasons, and so by around June one, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.240 which was when hurricane season starts, you've got an ocean 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.640 which with surface temperatures hovering around Sevenday nine to eighty 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.800 degrees fahrenheit. Okay, Yeah, And I think eighty is where 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.320 you've got to be kind of that's the threshold to 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.559 even get if you want to talk about hurricanes, it's 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.640 got to go to eighty degrees exactly, and not just 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:31.880 at the very surface. I think it needs to be 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.439 that down to about a hundred and fifty feet because 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.440 hurricanes mixes a lot of water together, and if it's 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.280 not warm water that stays available, it's not it's just 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.640 gonna peeter out right. So you need eighty degree at 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.679 a minimum um surface temperature water down to a hundred 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.480 and fifty feet and so um, you've got that going 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.120 on in the ocean around certain times a year, and 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.880 if we can travel into the interior of Africa all 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.839 the way to Sudan, a little monarch butterfly will flap 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.240 its wings and that creates an air disturbance, and weeks 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.280 later that develops into an even bigger disturbance, and it 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:10.440 moves further west across Africa and finally off the coast, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.360 and it will encounter that warm water and warm air 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.160 that's that's being heated by the water, and that disturbance 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.320 will actually encounter that water that's evaporating and rising. And 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:26.680 as that water evaporates and rises, um, it's becoming less dense. Right, 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.880 the molecules that make up that air with the water 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.640 vapor are further apart then cold are that's above it. Well, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.960 nature of abhoors a vacuum, right, and when the air 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.280 leaves that area right above the surface of the ocean, 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.800 cold are starts to move in below it, right, which 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.760 pushes the other air further upward. But then that cold 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.320 air is warmed up too, and that starts to rise. 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.600 And so what you have under this disturbance in the 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.040 air that was created by a butterfly's wings in Sudan 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:02.960 is this this motion in the ocean. That's all that 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.280 that that is kind of this upward trajectory of air 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.000 constantly moving upward, and it's full of water vapors. So 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.560 it's when it gets high enough up into the cooler 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.600 regions in the atmosphere, it condenses and forms clouds, and 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.280 those clouds eventually start to rain, and as it condenses 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.480 and starts to rain, that actually heats up that area. 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.400 The latent heat of condensation heats up that area. So 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.959 now you have this column of warm moist air rising up, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.240 moving with coal. They're trying to come in and replace it. 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.320 As the warm air moves, and you have a lot 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.080 of air movement, you have some storm starting, and you 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:45.080 have all the ingredients now for what could become a hurricane. 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.920 That's right, and uh that that heat exchange is going on, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.720 and that's going to create a lot of wind and 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.160 that's just gonna make everything worse because those winds converge 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.840 at the surface and they're colliding with each other, and 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.560 that's pushing that warm moist air up and up, and 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.080 that cycle just starts to happen. That rotational cycle that's 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.880 so tied to, like the image of a hurricane, and uh, 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.360 those winds get involved and everything kind of everything kind 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.760 of just synchronizes, right exactly. I mean, like that's what 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.200 I'm talking about with all the different coincidences that have 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.080 to number one, be present, then have to work just right, 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.960 because if that wind that's converging at the surface to 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.600 replace that warm moist air that's rising. Um Man, I've 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:31.600 never said moist this many times in my life and 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.760 been okay with it, but I'm I'm all right, so far, 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:38.680 how are you doing? Okay? Um, If the speed of 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.960 that wind that's coming in at the surface is different 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.400 than say, like the speed of that you know higher 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.360 up in that column, you're gonna have what's called wind shear, 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.000 and it's going to keep the storm from being organized 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.920 into a cohesive hole. So just that factor alone that 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.880 somehow the winds at different levels of this storm that's 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.680 starting to organize have to be moving at roughly the 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.680 same speed. That's a big one, right, Um. And then 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.240 because of these these thunderstorms that are are are starting 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.800 and the more condensation that's um that they're heating more 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.440 and more, so they're creating more and more storms. So 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.400 you've got all these storms that are kind of starting 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:18.400 around this area, and they start to get organized together, 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.720 and then this is this. Eventually, this is called a 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.640 tropical depression. And eventually, if all, if everything that we're 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.560 gonna keep talking about happens just precisely right, is going 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.440 to organize into a tropical storm and then a hurricane. 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.120 And then the hurricane, as we'll see, goes through different 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.880 stages of categorization. And all has to do with the 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.760 speed of those winds that have now kind of organized 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.880 into this rotational monster, which is really a tight or 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:50.600 sometimes a loose collection of storms that form one big storm. 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.080 That's what a hurricane is, that are all kind of 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.000 moving in the same direction at about the same speed. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.960 And it all has to do with that that thing 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.760 that started all this, that rising moist air in that 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:06.960 one spot. Because as these different storms assemble into a larger, 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:12.000 more cohesive hole, the center, the lowest pressure center, right 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:18.440 where there's the most the warmest, moistest air is rising up. 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.560 Um it also has the lowest pressure, and because nature 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.640 abhors a vacuum, higher pressure air is trying to come 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.400 in to fill it. But there's something that um we 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.480 have to talk about called the Coriolis effect, and here's 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:36.360 where things really run off the rails for us ticket chuck. Yeah. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.480 The Coriolis effect is when you see that hurricane rotating, 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.120 that's a byproduct or I guess the product of that 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.280 Coriolis force, which is we've talked about it before, but 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.320 it's the natural phenomenon that makes fluids in any kind 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.240 of free moving object either go to the right of 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.000 their destination if you're in the Northern hemisphere, or to 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:01.720 the left in the Southern hemisphere. Uh, not toilets in Australia. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.879 I thought, I thought we said that. Okay, so I 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.159 thought I said it wasn't true, and somebody showed us 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.960 that it was. It was the opposite. Yeah, I think 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.959 it's not true. Well we'll find out again. But at 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.639 any rate, in the Northern hemisphere, your winds deflect to 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.439 the right. In the Southern Hemisphere, they're going to deflect 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:23.439 to the left. And this that deflection that gets the 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.159 storm spinning. And that's why you get different rotations in 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:31.280 each hemisphere. They rotate counterclockwise here in the Northern hemisphere 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.800 and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. Right, But we do 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.520 need to keep going with the Coriolis effect. Sorry, I 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.320 didn't mean to scare everybody, but the Coriolis effect does 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.720 two things. It makes the hurricane rotate like you were saying, 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.760 basically on an axis around that lowest pressure center. And 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.639 then it also moves the hurricane physically itself as it 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.920 kind of travels southward from West Africa towards the equator, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.719 which is really bizarre because at the equator the Coriolis 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.480 effect is at its absolute weakest. It's strongest at the polls. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.440 But for some reason, something about the Coriolis effect moves 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.320 the hurricane like a hurricane could theoretically cross the equator 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.879 from the northern hemisphere to the southern. Who knows what 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.879 would happen when it and when it transferred over to 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.320 the other like the opposite Coriolis effect. As far as 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:26.440 we know, probably as far as we know, it's never happened. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:28.720 But we've only been keeping track of this stuff for 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.879 about a hundred years, but it just doesn't ever seem 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.560 to happen. For some reason, the Corioles effect, despite being 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.520 weakest that the equator, moves hurricanes back upward over and 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:43.600 up back into the left right. So the Coriolis effect 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.800 us two very important things for hurricanes, but probably the 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:48.800 biggest one, the most important one as far as the 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.640 hurricane itself is concerned, is to keep that thing spinning 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.159 around in the same motion, clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.080 your hemisphere. All right, I think we should take a 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.400 break and we can come back and talk a little 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:30.440 bit about what these different categories mean right after this, So, so, Chuck, 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.959 before we talk categories, I have to pop one more 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:38.080 thing in about the coreoles. It's important, you're ready, sure, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.800 So that lowest pressure center, what's called the eye m 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.359 that is actually um. It's the clearest part of the hurricane. 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:52.520 Sometimes it's clear skies, um beautiful, eerily calm. And the 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:57.400 reason why is because of the Coriolis effect, the lowest 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:02.280 pressure center is never overwhelmed by the higher pressure air 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.160 that's trying to get in. The whole reason that hurricane 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.000 spins around the center is because all that wind from 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.480 sometimes hundreds of miles away is traveling to that center 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.399 trying to fill it, but the Coriolis effect deflects it. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.239 They end up going around that center the winds and 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.400 then up so lifting more warm air up, and they 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.240 never make it to that middle which is what causes that. 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.880 And the stronger the winds, meaning the stronger the pressure 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.399 gradient between the center of the the hurricane and the 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.399 outer bands beyond the eyewall, the stronger the difference between 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.560 that gradient, the stronger the hurricane is going to be 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.520 because the stronger the winds are gonna be trying to 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:45.480 fill that low pressure void. That's what causes hurricanes to 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:50.399 spin around clockwise or counterclockwise. That is absolutely fascinating to me. 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.280 It's very cool either storm commest place in the world. 0:20:54.320 --> 0:21:00.040 It really is, although it's counterintuitive. It is. So the 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:05.480 categories category one and this is all broken down and 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:10.760 very sort of uh. I mean there's there's really there's. 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.560 It's it's pretty stiff as as far as how they categorize. 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.400 He's saying, right, it's not willy nilly. They don't say 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.119 like this. It's getting pretty bad. I think it's a two. 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:25.040 Actually measure things and there are demarcation lines by usually 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:29.920 wind speeds is one of the big parts. Um is 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.960 a category one and that's gonna you know, I could 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.840 blow a tree branch into your roof or or get 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.959 some shingles shuttering. You might have to get out the pruners. 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:46.920 Category two is ten miles per hour. That's getting pretty 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.760 dangerous and you're gonna get some pretty extensive damage at 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:54.080 this point. Um Like you know, the siding of your house, 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.320 the frame of your house. Shallow trees can be snapped 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.320 or uprooted. At this point, you're probably gonna get some 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:07.240 power loss. Number three is a major hurricane. Category three 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.439 is at one eleven hundred twenty nine miles and they 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.439 rank this as devastating damage and you know, lots of 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:18.160 trees uprooted. You definitely will lose probably power and water 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.240 for a period of time for the category three. And 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.320 then you've got your category four, which is a hundred 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:29.040 and thirty to a hundred and fifty six. Category five 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.760 is hundred and fifty seven. Are higher. You're probably not 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.800 gonna see many Cat fives, but the Cat four is 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.200 pretty catastrophic, and those are the ones that we've seen 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:42.600 more and more of in more recent years. Category fives 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:49.960 are just, yeah, that's extreme catastrophe there monsters monsters. So 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.159 category four and five, there's not a tremendous amount of 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.200 differences of both, like you said, considered catastrophic um damage 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.600 causing hurricanes, But I get the impression that the difference 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.760 between four and five and really like real life is substantial. 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:08.760 But either way, they're gonna like leave so many trees 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.560 and power lines down that you're this that whatever area 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.400 gets hit substantially by one of those UM category four 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.560 or five are going to basically be isolated both without 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:21.280 power but also um the roads are going to be 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.159 made impassable. And sometimes you can be stuck in the 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.679 midst of this for weeks before you can can be 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:31.800 reached again. The destruction can be so bad from them. Yeah, 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.480 and you know, if you're are a coastal liver, um, 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.120 this is a part of your life. Every year hurricane 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:42.160 season is a big deal. You've got your your house 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:45.920 retrofitted ideally at this point, I think like almost any 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:49.520 coastal house these days is on stilts. If it's you know, 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:52.040 built in the last twenty plus years, well, not just that, 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.760 I think after two thousand five, I want to say 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.840 it was Hurricane Andrew um Florida in particular, past new 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:01.959 building codes that I like, if you put a roof on, 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.359 it has to have like this kind of joist and 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:08.040 um Like whatever windows are put in have to be 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:12.200 like wind proof. Up to thirty miles. Probably they've definitely 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:15.200