This document provides information about hurricanes, including how they are tracked, where and when they form, their effects, how they are classified, and historical context. It discusses how hurricanes gather energy from warm ocean waters and go through several stages of development. The document also describes features of hurricanes like their eye and clockwise rotation. An experiment is presented on which type of soil - clay, gravel, or sand - withstands a simulated hurricane the best based on how much soil is washed out of a container. The results support the hypothesis that gravel upholds a hurricane most effectively while sand is washed out the easiest.

1. By Sara Frank

2. How to track hurricanes
(source 6)
• Aircrafts (planes)
• Satellites- take pictures of earth from space
• Weather Radar-collects cloud formation information
• Buoys and floats
• Computer forecast models- use weather information

3. When and Where
• Hurricane season is June 1st through November 30th (4)
• Hurricanes form in tropical areas where the air and water is
warm.
• hurricanes are formed in the North Atlantic Ocean (2)
• They form where water is 80 degrees or more. (4)
• Hurricanes build up as they go through the ocean(4)
• There are 5-6 hurricanes per year usually (5)

4. Affects of Hurricanes
• They can unleash up to 2.4 trillion gallons of rain
water(5)
• People can lose homes and property
• Trees can be knocked down and die
• Animals can be washed away from their habitats
• Hurricanes can cause costal beach erosion from the
wave currents. (1)
• Hurricane wind and rain can destroy buildings
• Hurricane winds can cause tornadoes (4)

5. How are Hurricanes Formed?
• Hurricanes gather energy and heat through
contact with warm ocean water . (1)
• Evaporation speeds up the process of a
hurricane (1)
• Hurricanes go through four stages-(7)
• Tropical disturbance
• Tropical depression
• Tropical storm
• And finally a hurricane
• Not all storms will reach the forces of a
hurricane.

6. When Hurricanes hit land…
• When hurricanes hit land, they lose much power (1)
• Hurricanes move in a counter clockwise rotation (1)
• Hurricanes have an “eye”
• The eye of the hurricane is in the middle and is the calmest part.(1)
• Hurricanes have categories
• The categories of a hurricane are determined by how strong the
hurricane is
• 1 being the weakest and 5 being the strongest.
• Wind of hurricanes curve because of earth rotating on it’s axis, which
is called the Coriolis effect. (7)
• The faster the wind blows, the more the wind curves (7)

7. What Can We Expect in the Future?
• The number of category of 4 and 5 have been
increasing since the 1980s (7)
• Scientists think global warming has affected
the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes (7)
• Some scientists think the number of 4 and 5
hurricanes are increasing because of the
technology advances. (7)

8. History of the Hurricane
The word hurricane comes from “Huracan” a
Taino and Carib god of evil, or the Mayan
storm god, “Hunraken” (5)
The first possible recording of an Atlantic
cyclone was found by Mayan Hieroglyphics (5)

9. Data

10. Bibliography
1. “Hurricanes” Author N/A. WeatherWiz Kids.
www.weatherwizkids.com
2. “Hurricanes” Web Weather for kids. //eo.ucar.edu
3. “Texas Hurricane History” USA Today. 2011. www.usatoday.com
4. “How Hurricanes Work” Marshall Blain Et Al.
//science.howstuffworks.com
5. “Huracan” Rochelle Oblack. About. //weather.about.com
7. “Predicting Hurricanes:Times Have Changed” 2007
//celebrating200years.noaa.gov
8. Hurricanes. By Alvin and Virginia Silverstein and Laura Silverstein
Nunn. Enslow Publishers, NJ. 2010

11. Experiment
Problem: Which kind of soil is best for
hurricanes?
Soils Tested: clay, gravel, sand.

12. Materials
• Bucket/container
• Shower water
• clay
• Gravel
• sand
• Measuring cup
• camera

13. Procedures
• Place a (measured) type of soil into the container.
• Place the container of the 1st soil into the shower.
• Turn on the shower for 60 sec.
• After 60 sec., measure how much soil is still in the container
after the “hurricane.”
• Subtract that from the amount that was first in the container.
• Repeat for each type of soil
• Repeat for each 3 trials.

14. Variables
Controlled:
• Amount of soil in container
• Amount of time the soil is in the “hurricane”
• The place where the bucket of soil is
Independent: The type of soil
Dependent: How it is affected by a “hurricane” (how much soil that
escapes the container during the hurricane.)

15. Hypothesis
If I put sand, clay, and gravel through a hurricane, then I think that
the gravel will uphold the hurricane the best, because gravel is
the heaviest out of the three soil types. The gravel also has
bigger pore space (permeability), so it can hold more water
without being washed out of its container . Also, when minor
everyday wind hits gravel, the gravel is usually heavy enough
that it doesn’t move as easily as the other types. I think that the
sand will be the worst at upholding the hurricane, because of
the very small pore space that cant hold much water without
the sand and water over flowing. Also, for example, when you
go to the beach, when the waves come up on the sand, the dry
sand gets washed away. When you simply blow sand on the
beach, it travels very easily.

16. Pictures of the Experiment
60 second timer

17. sand

18. Gravel

19. Clay

20. Videos

21. Results
Gravel 0ml 12ml 0ml
Sand 7.5ml 12ml 17ml
Clay 0ml 10ml 3ml

22. Conclusion
I accept my hypothesis. The gravel upheld the
hurricane the best, and the sand was the worst at
upholding the hurricane. If I were to do this
experiment again, I would test soils that weren’t
solvents, because the sand is a solvent. Since it is
a solvent, some of it dissolved in the water, so I
had to drain the water that had dissolved sand in
it. Also if I were to do this experiment again, I
would chose a smaller container, so that more
soil could escape from the container during the
hurricane.