Lab 3 Putting Hurricanes on the Map_ Kyra .docx (2)

Geol 116 Kyra Hooshi 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: an indicator of storm position (C – Closest approach to 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. Color Key for Wind speeds: Green : Tropical depression (25 mph - 31 mph) Yellow : Gale (32 mph - 46 mph) Pink : Tropical storm (46 mph - 73 mph) Orange : Category 1 (73 mph - 96 mph) Red: Category 2 (96 mph - 110 mph) Purple : Category 3 (110 mph >) 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? The track I plotted was almost identical the actual one provided by the NHC.

2. Click on the storm name on the index on the left side and click on Details; the tabular data for the storm will show up in the left frame and the storm track is mapped on the right. You can select the Zoom In or Zoom Out tool, then click the map to control your view. 3. To see what the colors indicate, click on Legend on the lower right. 4. For a close look at the storm track for a single report, scroll through the records on the left-hand side of the page. You can zoom in on the track at landfall to see which cities and towns were closest to the storm's center, along with what the maximum winds and minimum air pressure were. 5. Search for other storms that year to check out the track of a few other individual storms. Do this by typing in the year of your storm in the search box. Then scroll out to see both Atlantic and Eastern Pacific storms. General note: these are maps of the storm center and don’t reflect how broad the storm was. Question o Do you see any consistency about the paths and intensity of the storm tracks you've examined from that year? Compare and contrast the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific storms. Yes, the intensity of the storms in the Atlantic was more intense( including category 4 and 5 storms). At the same time, those in the Eastern Pacific solely consisted of category 1, tropical storms, and tropical depressions . Has your community been affected by tropical storms? 1. Enter your town/city name in the Search box. You'll initially get any storm whose center passed over your area. Expand the search to at least 100 miles. What storms have impacted your community? Which one was the most severe (in terms of wind speed)? -Hurricane Ida (was the most severe in terms of wind speeds of up to 130 mph) Hurricane Henry Hurricane Elsa (2021) 2. Enter two of the communities below, and another of your choice, to see how many storms have affected them. Location Coral Gables, FL - Home of the National Hurricane Center Provincetown, MA - Tip of the Cape Cod peninsula New Orleans, LA - Port city on the Mississippi River Chicago, IL - Port city on Lake Michigan Questions o How severely has your community been impacted in the past?

My community has been severely impacted in the past, for example, by Superstorm Sandy which was extremely destructive, as the largest Atlantic hurricane in diameter. But one of the most impactful hurricanes was "The Great New England Hurricane" - better known locally as the “Long Island Express”- making two landfalls across the tri-state area on September 21, 1938. It wasn't a Category 5 when it hit; the storm fortunately weakened to a 4 and then a 3 several hours before, otherwise the devastation would have been even worse. It was still the strongest storm ever to hit Long Island. Winds were sustained around 120 mph when the hurricane first struck, with gusts likely 20-30 mph higher - compared that with wind gusts from Sandy in 2012 (nearly 90 mph). There were tens of thousands of homes destroyed, and 60 people died. A number of others were injured as well. Approximately $620 million in damage was caused, which is roughly $50 billion today. o Which areas of the U.S. would you consider to be "Hurricane Country"? Hurricanes in areas of the U.S. by the Gulf of Mexico or along the Atlantic Coast, I would consider being “Hurricane Country”, especially Florida which is most prone to landfall. o Would you rather spend hurricane season on the Southeast (Atlantic) Coast or on the Gulf Coast of North America? Give a reason for your choice I would rather spend hurricane season on Florida’s Atlantic coast. While the frequency of hurricanes along the coast has been recorded to be higher, the incidence of hurricanes is far fewer and is much less intense/severe than those on the Gulf Coast of North America. 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. -North Atlantic Ocean Basin: medium amount -Eastern Pacific Ocean Basin: small-medium amount -Western Pacific Ocean Basin: A LOT -North Indian Ocean Basin: little 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? The highest incidence of category 3+ storms is in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. 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? The strongest storms tend to go East of India, the Arabian Sea, in the Bay of Bengal region.