HOW ARE HURRICANES

• Hurricanes begin as tropical storms over the warm moist waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the equator. (Near the Phillippines and the China Sea, hurricanes are called typhoons or in .) As the moisture evaporates it rises until enormous amounts of heated moist air are twisted high in the atmosphere.

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SUMMARY OF HURRICANE MITCH

• When and where was it.
• October 26th 1998 just off the coast of Honduras.
• How was it formed.
• There was a very hot summer which allowed sea temperatures in the Caribbean to reach 27°C. This meant there was a lot of evaporation of water vapour which caused the air above the sea to become humid and damp. The air above the sea begins to rise as it is very hot which causes an area of low pressure to form. Air was sucked in over the sea to replace the rising air and a tropical depression was formed which is the first stage in hurricane formation.
• What where the effects.
• The effects of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras included the worst flooding in Honduras in the 20th century. Hurricane Mitch, the strongest storm of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, formed on October 22, and after becoming a Category 5 hurricane, it weakened and struck Honduras on October 29. While near peak intensity, Mitch struck the offshore Guanaja island, where it nearly destroyed the mangrove forest.