Hurricanes

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Barbara J. Feldman

The official Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico hurricane season starts on June 1, ends on November 30, and averages seven named storms. Unfortunately, the 2005 Atlantic season was record breaker. Twenty-eight storms reached speeds of thirty-nine miles per hour, the threshold for being named by the National Hurricane Center. Among them, Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and costliest hurricane in U.S. history, and Wilma the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.

AP Hurricanes

5 stars

Associated Press hosts two amazing educational animations. How Storms Destroy illustrates "the typical damage caused by hurricanes at each of the five intensity categories on the Saffir-Simpson scale" to a typical house, a couple of palm trees and a mobile home. If you need more time to read the descriptions as you pass through each category, use the pause button. 150 Years of Ruin maps the path of historic hurricanes, viewable by decade, and also by costliest and deadliest.

Discovery Channel: Surviving Katrina

5 stars

A companion website to a Discovery Channel televison special, Surviving Katrina weaves a story with video clips, photo galleries, and a fact sheet called "Get The Numbers." Best click is the interactive Katrina Timeline, where you meet nine survivors, and follow them from August 26, 2005 (when Katrina turns toward New Orleans) to September 3, 2005 (when the evacuation is complete and President Bush orders 7,200 active troops to the region.)

Howstuffworks: How Hurricanes Work

3 stars

"According to the National Hurricane Center, the word ‘hurricane' comes from the name ‘Hurican,' the Caribbean god of evil." Visit Howstuffworks to learn what a hurricane is, how hurricanes form, and about the three main parts of a hurricane: the eye, eye wall and rain band. In addition to links embedded throughout the article, at the end there is a list of related Howstuffworks topics (such as "What is a levee?") and a hot list of other hurricane sites.

Hurricane Strike

5 stars

Hurricane Strike is an interactive role-playing lesson for middle-school students that covers both emergency preparedness and the science of hurricanes. The scene opens at the Castilio home in Fort Walton Beach, FL, where you are a virtual houseguest. "Over the course of seven days, Hurricane Erin forms in the Atlantic Ocean, crosses the Florida panhandle, and then makes another landfall at Fort Walton Beach. During these days, the learner is introduced to many basic concepts of atmospheric science, climate, and geography, while also learning some important and possibly life-saving safety and preparedness skills."

USA Today: Hurricane Basics

5 stars

Hurricane Basics is chock-full of easy-to-understand articles on hurricane science, storm history, hurricane safety and hurricane hunters, sprinkled with outstanding graphics and animations. Best tip for amateur meteorologists wanting to track storms in progress: download the two printable tracking maps, one for the Atlantic and the other for the Pacific region. They are reduced versions of the maps used at the National Hurricane Center.