Tropical Storm Case Studies

The wonderful Hurricane Song is here! Factually all correct, even if it does hurt your ears!

Hurricane Mitch -hit Central America & created killer landslides. Very heavy rainfall. Check here for more details.

Essential information on Hurricane Katrina can be found here

Hurricane Andrew was only the third category 5 Hurricane to make landfall in the USA & most of its damage was caused by the wind, making an interesting contrast with the other two tropical storms included here. This site gives a good overview of the behaviour & impact of the storm. Make suitable notes to enable you to make comparisons with Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Mitch & Hurricane Hanna (the one in the text book).

Hurricane Mitch resources

The resources from the lesson can be downloaded if you need a copy. The tasks are included. They are to be completed by next lesson.

Hurricane Mitch

Hurricane Mitch was one of the deadliest and most powerful hurricanes observed on record, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h). The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season. At the time, Mitch was the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever observed in the month of October, though it has since been surpassed by Hurricane Wilma of the 2005 season. The hurricane also tied for the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, but it has since dropped to seventh.
Mitch formed in the western Caribbean Sea on October 22, and after drifting through extremely favorable conditions, it rapidly strengthened to peak at Category 5 status, the highest possible rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. After drifting southwestward and weakening, the hurricane hit Honduras as a minimal hurricane. It drifted through Central America, reformed in the Bay of Campeche, and ultimately struck Florida as a strong tropical storm.
Due to its slow motion from October 29 to November 3, Hurricane Mitch dropped historic amounts of rainfall in Honduras and Nicaragua, with unofficial reports of up to 75 inches (1900 mm). Deaths due to catastrophic flooding made it the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history; nearly 11,000 people were killed with over 8,000 left missing by the end of 1998. The flooding caused extreme damage, estimated at over $5 billion (1998 USD, $6 billion 2006 USD). Hurricane Mitch was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since the Great Hurricane of 1780, displacing the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 as the second-deadliest on record. Nearly eleven thousand people were confirmed dead, and almost as many reported missing. Deaths were mostly from flooding and mudslides in Central America, where the slow-moving hurricane and then tropical storm dropped nearly 3 feet (900 mm) of rain. The flooding and mudslides damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes, with total damage amounting to over $5 billion (1998 USD, $6 billion 2006 USD), most of which was in Honduras and Nicaragua.

(from Wikepedia). The DVD clip shown in the lesson is from the 'Wild Weather' series.