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Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

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Hurricane Katrina was a devastating storm, but not a lot of people know how it was born, how it turned into a hurricane, and how its life ended. Hurricane Katrina was first born over the waters of the Bahamas on August 23, 2005 (“Hurricane Katrina”¬¬¬¬). On the next day, it was officially declared a tropical storm and was given the name Tropical Storm Katrina (Caravantes 5). Soon after it was named, it went towards Florida and turned into a Category 1 hurricane on August 26 (Caravantes 7). By August 28, Katrina had become a Category 5 hurricane with 175mph winds (Zimmerman). Hurricane Katrina continued to move North, and as it reached the areas around the great lakes on August 31, it slowly turned back into a Category 1 hurricane; in less …show more content…
The anatomy or life of a storm is the most important and valuable information you will need if you want to know more about the storm. First of all, hurricanes are so rare that there is a 1 out of 100 percent chance that a hurricane will be created (Weather 466). An ordinary hurricane is first created when a tropical disturbance occurs. A tropical disturbance is when warm air rises, cools and condenses into clouds. As more and more air rises and turns into clouds, an area of low pressure is formed over the ocean or body of water it is formed over. Hurricanes can only form over a body of water because it needs to absorb the thermal energy from the water so that it can create an area of lower pressure. Until this stage, precipitation is not involved, but …show more content…
If you look at a hurricane from above, it looks like a circle, but it looks more like a spiral inside. When the winds go in a counterclockwise direction, it also goes outward. Except for the very center of the hurricane, clouds cover the body of water the storm hovers over. The very center of the storm is called the eye. It is where there are weaker winds. The eye looks like a circle in the middle of the hurricane. If you were to be inside the eye of the hurricane, you would see the storm clouds surrounding you. This is called the eyewall. It’s where the winds actually start. Other than the eye, a hurricane has one more feature. This is called a rainband. Rainbands are the strips of clouds that unusually longer than the normal length of the precipitation clouds in the hurricane (Weather 466). The clouds face outward in a counterclockwise direction. It stretches out and outside of the circular shape of the hurricane. Depending on how strong the winds are in the hurricane itself, or the outside of the eye, a hurricane is given a different category. When it is a Category 1 hurricane, the wind’s speed differs from 119-153 km/hr. When the winds are at 155-177 km/hr, the hurricane would be a Category 2. Categories 3 and 4 would be 179-209 km/hr and 211-249 km/hr in the following order. The strongest and last Category of a hurricane is the Category

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