Hurricane Ida, an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm, made landfall in Louisiana.
Context
- Ida is the fourth hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic storm season.
- Hurricane Ida is one of the strongest storms to ever hit Louisiana.
- Ida is now tied with Hurricane Laura from last year and the Last Island Hurricane of 1856 as the state's most powerful storm ever.
2021 Atlantic hurricane season
- The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is the current Atlantic hurricane season.
- It is part of the annual tropical cyclone season in the northern hemisphere.
- It began on June 1, 2021, and will end on November 30, 2021.
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What fuelled Ida?
- Deep, warm water helped fueled Hurricane Ida.
- As a hurricane moves overhead, its winds ‘churn up’ the water in a process, called upwelling, which brings deeper water up to the surface.
- When that deeper water is a similar and also high temperature to the original sea surface temperature, that ‘new’ water will continue to provide fuel to the storm.”
What are Hurricanes?
- Hurricanes are large, swirling storms with winds of 119 kilometers per hour (74 mph) or higher.
- The storms form over warm ocean waters and sometimes strike land.
- When a hurricane reaches land, it pushes a wall of ocean water ashore.
- This wall of water is called a storm surge, which along with heavy rain can cause flooding, especially near the coast.
Different regions, different names
The different terms hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones all refer to tropical storms.
- Hurricanes are tropical storms that form over the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast Pacific.
- Cyclones are formed over the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
- Typhoons are formed over the Northwest Pacific Ocean
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Categorization of hurricanes
- Hurricanes are categorized according to the speed of their maximum sustained winds.
- The scale used for this purpose is called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
- It was developed in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and by meteorologist and then-director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Bob Simpson.
- The Saffir-Simpson scale rates a hurricane's severity from 1 (very dangerous) to 5 (catastrophic), based on the following wind speeds:
- Category 1: Winds of 74-95 mph (119-153 km/h)
- Category 2: Winds of 96-110 mph (154-177 km/h)
- Category 3: Winds of 111-129 mph (178-208 km/h)
- Category 4: Winds of 130-156 mph (209-251 km/h)
- Category 5: Winds exceeding 157 mph (252 km/h)
