Lab 3 Putting Hurricanes on the Map

Geol 116 Fall 2023 Lab 3: Putting Hurricanes on the Map Based in part on an exercise from the EarthLabs project. Answer all questions and hand in your report electronically to your TA. To do this lab, you’ll need to download Google Earth Pro onto your computer. This is a great, free program that allows you to view locations all over the earth over time. Part A: Create a Storm Track using Google Earth Pro 1. Choose a storm from the National Hurricane Center data archive. The Excel database provided with the assignment includes all storms from 2000 onward. Choose a named storm that reached at least Category 3 (i.e. maximum sustained wind speed greater than 110 miles/hr or 96 knots—which is the unit used in the table) and for which there were at least 50 entries. Once you've chosen your storm, select, copy, and paste those rows of data into a text document (or into an Excel spreadsheet). Use this key to interpret the daily data for the storm you chose. Here’s an example HURDAT2 format.: Header: identifier (AL for Atlantic, 09 for 9 th tropical storm of the year, 2004 for the year); Name of storm (if named)— Ivan in this case; number of track entries, one per row (a report every six hours) Column 1: date. Column 2: time (Universal Time Coordinates; Eastern Daylight time + 4 hours). Column 3: indicator of storm position (C – Closest approach to a coast, not followed by a landfall; G – Genesis; I – An intensity peak in terms of both pressure and wind; L – Landfall (center of system crossing a coastline); P – Minimum in central pressure; R – Provides additional detail on the intensity of the cyclone when rapid changes are underway; S – Change of status of the system; T – Provides additional detail on the track (position) of the cyclone; W – Maximum sustained wind speed) Column 4: Status of system. Options are: TD – Tropical depression; TS – Tropical storm; HU –Hurricane; EX – Extratropical cyclone; SD – Subtropical cyclone of subtropical depression intensity; SS – Subtropical cyclone of subtropical storm intensity; LO – A low that is neither a tropical cyclone, a subtropical cyclone, nor an extratropical cyclone (of any intensity); WV – Tropical Wave; DB – Disturbance (of any intensity) Columns 5 and 6: Latitude and longitude of storm center at that time Column 7: maximum sustained winds (in knots, nautical miles per hour; 1 knot = 1.15 miles per hour) Column 8: minimum pressure (in millibars) Columns 9-12: radius of maximum extent of 34 kt wind in northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and northwestern quadrants (in nautical miles) Columns 13-16: radius of maximum extent of 50 kt wind in NE, SE, SW, and NW quadrants (in nautical miles) Columns 17-20: radius of maximum extent of 64 kt wind in NE, SE, SW, and NW quadrants (in nautical miles)

2. You'll plot the storm's location and status just two times for each day (two of the four rows of daily data). Decide which rows you'll use and highlight them, or cross out the other rows, or (if in Excel) hide them. Here’s what you need to do for that: 1. Download Google Earth Pro if you don’t already have it on your computer. Open the program. 2. Right-click on My Places , choose Add, choose Folder, and set up a folder under My Places with the name of the storm you are tracking. This will establish a folder to save the map information you are creating. 3. In the Search field, enter the first latitude and longitude values of your storm: use N for north and W for west (example: 19.7N 82.7W) and click the Search button. You may need to zoom out several levels in order to see any land around the location you requested. 4. Right-click the folder you have named for the storm you are following, choose add, choose P lacemark , and it will add an icon to the point you have just identified. 5. Enter a name for the placemark. In the description field, provide information such as the wind speed and atmospheric pressure. You can also click the placemark icon in the edit window to change the icon color or shape to indicate the storm's wind speeds. 3. Repeat steps 6 through 8 to add a placemark for each half-day during the storm. Click the Save button to save your map on Google's server. 4. Add line segments between the placemarks for each day. To do this, right-click on your storm track folder, choose add, choose Path . Give the path a name in the dialog box. Then, leaving the dialog box open, click on the placemark location at one end of the segment you want to mark, and drag the cursor to the other end. You should have drawn a path between the two points. You should color code the line segments based on wind speeds (i.e one color for tropical depression stage, 1 for tropical storm, etc.), and you should make sure the line is thick enough to be seen clearly. 5. Save the image with your completed storm track and “print” it as a pdf that you can submit to your TA. 6. Compare your plot with the National Hurricane Center’s plot for tropical storms that year by looking at the Past Track Seasonal Maps . How close was your track to the actual one provided by the NHC? Addition Question: Use the distance scale on your map to estimate the total length of your storm track. Use that value to estimate the average speed of the storm per day—how fast did it move, on average? Summary Reports What else is known about the storm you plotted? How did it affect people and property? Did the storm cause flooding? Were homes and businesses damaged? Were any deaths attributed to the storm? This type of information is collected and published by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). After every storm, the NHC publishes a Summary Report about the storm's effects. 1. Go to the National Hurricane Center's Tropical Cyclone Reports to obtain the Summary Report for your storm (link will open in new tab). Select the year of the storm that you plotted; this will give you a list of reports for all storms that year. There’s a good chance your storm is also described on Wikipedia. 2. Scroll through the report to get the data to answer the following questions. 1. What was the highest rainfall total reported for your storm? Where did it occur? 2. What were the highest wind speeds? 3. How many official Hurricane Watches or Warnings were issued? 4. How much of a disaster was it (loss of life, economic losses)?

Look at ALL the storms 1. Look at storm tracks in different ocean basins. Type Ocean Basin in the search bar. Start with the North Atlantic, then Eastern Pacific, Western Pacific, etc. 2. Zoom out to the Full Extent so you can explore the pattern of hurricane tracks. 3. Simplify the maps you view by looking only at major (Category 3, 4, 5) storms. Questions 1. Based just on your observations of the map patterns (without counting storms), which region do you think has the highest incidence of Category 3+ storms? 2. Looking west of the center of the Atlantic Ocean along the latitude of Morocco, look for the generally green area that is west of the generally red and yellow area. Where do the strongest storms go? 3. Now consider the similarities and differences between storms in the Gulf of Mexico and the western North Atlantic. Does one of those regions have less intense storms? Why or why not? 4. Compare and contrast the storm tracks in the Atlantic with those of the Western and Eastern Pacific. Describe what you think might be responsible for the differences in storms between the two oceans.