Atmosphere Under Assault The Plot Against Hurricanes By Joel
Carlinsky July 17, 2010 - The term "hurricane" is an official
but arbitray designation for a tropical storm that reaches
sustained wind speeds of more than 75 miles per hour. Thus a
single storm might pick up speed and become a "hurricane", then
lose speed and be downgraded to a "tropical storm", then gain
speed again and so on, several times in the course of it's
existence. There therefore is really no such thing as a
"hurricane", distinct from other tropical storms of the same
type. These strong tropical storms are quite common seasonally
in the regions where they occur. They form along the equator, on
both sides of it, and move toward the pole as they gain in
strength. In modern times, forecasting when they will make
landfall so inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas can evacuate
has become the most important safety precaution available. Other
protective measure include building codes that try to design
structures to withstand the high winds, and