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There have been nearly 1000 tropical systems in the Atlantic alone in the past 100 years.
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A hurricane is a central area of low pressure in the atmosphere surrounded by strong winds.
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The average Eye on a hurricane is 14 miles in diameter but can be up to 20 miles wide! (The Eye of the hurricane is the calm low-pressure centre of the hurricane).
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A hurricanes strength is measured on the Saffir-Simspson scale. Category 5 hurricanes, the strongest, have wind of over 155 mph.
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Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been closed only one day since it opened in 1971. Hurricane Floyd on September 15, 1999, was the cause for the closure.
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The five deadliest hurricanes of the 20th century were Hurricane Mitch in 1998 where 11,000 people were killed; 1900’s hurricane in Glaveston, Texas where 8,000 were killed; Hurricane Fifi in 1974 where 8,000 were killed; 1930’s hurricane in the Dominican Republic where 8,000 were killed; and Hurricane Flora in 1963 where 7,200 people were killed.
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A hurricane that hit Puerto Rico in 1928 dropped 30 inches of rain over the island; the deluge was estimated to weigh 2,800,000,000 tons.
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According to NASA, the United States has the world's most violent weather. In a typical year, the United States can expect some 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes, and several hurricanes.
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All hurricanes are born over water, and their life span is about 10 days.
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An average of ten tropical storms develop each year over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Annually, six of these storms become hurricanes.
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By U.S. definition, a "hurricane" is any wind force exceeding 74 miles per hour; in the Western Pacific, such a phenomenon is called a "typhoon" and, near Australia, it's a "willy-willy."
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Every second, a hurricane releases as much energy as the explosion of a Hiroshima-type atomic bomb.
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Hurricane swells and waves travel 1,000 to 2,000 miles ahead of the approaching hurricane.
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Hurricanes often cause between 3 to 6 inches of rain to fall in a short period. In 1921, a hurricane deposited 23 inches on Texas in a day.
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On June 10, 1958, a tornado was crashing through El Dorado, Kansas. The storm pulled a woman out of her house and carried her 60 feet away. Reportedly, she landed, relatively unharmed, next to a phonograph record titled "Stormy Weather".
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The practice of naming hurricanes began early this century when an Australian weather forecaster decided to insult politicians he didn't like by naming devastating tropical storms after them.
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