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Re: Hurricane



kyle forinash wrote:

Ok, well I did ask for a simple explanation but now I'd like to know more.
How the heck does a huricane change random thermal motion into 150mph
winds? This is a neat trick (and at first glance would appear to contradict
the second law of thermo...).

I've been waiting for someone to come in with the ABC's other than the
simple "its from heat" idea, but so far I've missed it if anybody has.
This is away from my own expertise so I hesitate to jump in. In brief,
my understanding is that it works the way many people mistakenly think
spin in a bathtub drain works - Coriolis forces. So the same system
in the northern hemisphere would spin in the opposite direction as in
the southern. The analogue to water rushing down the drain is air hot
air rising over the warm ocean. The cold air rushing in then starts
spinning.

I believe this is the sort of details Kyle has been looking for, so
perhaps somebody who knows what they're talking about could either
correct the above, or provide some more detail. Of course, there are
bound to be dozens of web pages about such too... a search for
"hurricane coriolis" came up with pages such as
http://hannibal.wncc.cc.ne.us/~aveh/lecture/miscell/coriolis.htm and
http://weather.cod.edu/sirvatka/hurricanes.html


/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Doug Craigen "Technology with purpose"
http://www.dctech.com