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HURRICANES!
Introduction
Suppose you live in a small coastal town in Texas. On the
evening news, you hear about a tropical depression in the
Gulf of Mexico that appears to be heading towards Texas.
Although this disturbance is not yet classified as a
tropical storm, your parents wonder if they should start to
board up windows and bring in outdoor furniture to prepare
for high winds and rain. When does a tropical depression
become a tropical storm? When does a tropical storm become a
hurricane? What is the definition of a hurricane? How does a
hurricane form? What are the parts of a hurricane? When and
where have the most destructive hurricanes hit? In this
WebQuest you will explore the weather phenomena called
hurricanes and find the answers to these and other
questions.
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Task
Your job in this WebQuest is to discover the conditions
that create tropical depressions, tropical storms, and
hurricanes, and to identify the differences among these
storms. You will learn about the component parts of
hurricanes and about the source of energy for all tropical
storms. You will find out about the scale used to classify
hurricanes, and about the most destructive hurricanes ever
recorded. You will also discover the relationships between
tropical cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes. Finally, you
will answer a set of questions to demonstrate what you have
learned about hurricanes.
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Resources
Look at the web sites given here to find the information
that will enable you to answer questions about hurricanes.
- How
do hurricanes work?
Visit this site by
the Miami Museum of Science to learn how hurricanes form.
You can find out about hurricanes by scrolling down and
clicking on any of the buttons at the bottom of the page.
For example, if you click on "make a hurricane spiral",
you can go to an activity in which you will make a
hurricane spiral and use it to create the spiral effect of
a hurricane.
- Hurricane
Basics.
Go to this National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) site to learn all about
hurricanes, how they form, and how they are named. Scroll
down to see a list of names assigned to Atlantic tropical
storms through 2006.
- Hurricanes.
At this site by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) you can learn more about hurricanes. The
index at the left of the screen lists the topics available
at this site. Click on past major hurricanes to see a list
of major hurricanes that have hit the U.S. since 1961.
- How
Hurricanes Work.
Visit this site to learn how
a hurricane forms, what its parts are, and how hurricanes
are tracked. Click on parts of a hurricane, then scroll
down and click on hurricane creation to see interactive
graphics that show the formation of a hurricane.
- HyperHurricanes:
Create a Hurricane.
Go to this site to create
a hurricane of your own by moving sliders that represent
ocean temperatures, shearing winds, pressure gradient, and
humidity. Then you can compare your storm with one of
three past hurricanes.
- Hurricanes:
Nature's Greatest Storms.
At this NOAA site
you can learn more about the role of this organization in
tracking hurricanes. NOAA has two main hurricane tracking
centers, one in Florida and one in Hawaii. Both work with
satellite imagery to predict and track hurricanes. Scroll
down and click on any region to see the latest satellite
imagery of that region.
- Hurricanes:
Online Meteorology Guide.
Visit this
University of Illinois site to learn about hurricanes. You
can read a definition of hurricanes here, and find out
what the stages of development of a hurricane are. Scroll
down and click on explore a 3-D hurricane to view a
3-dimensional computer model of a hurricane.
- What
paths do hurricanes take?
Go to this Miami
Museum of Science site to find out more about hurricane
tracking. Click on the radar screen to open an activity in
which you can track a hurricane yourself. Then scroll down
and click on one of the hurricane buttons to find out
where that hurricane traveled.
- Tropical
cyclones: hurricanes and typhoons.
At
this World Book site you can read more about tropical
cyclones. The menu at the right lists other hurricane
topics covered at this site, including how hurricanes move
and the ecological effects of hurricanes.
- Overview
of Atlantic Hurricanes.
Visit this site
to find out more about the costliest and deadliest
hurricanes since 1900. The site includes information on
formation of hurricanes, how they are named, and how to
prepare for hurricanes.
- Killer
Storms of the Past.
Go to this site by
the Galveston Hurricane Center to see a list of the
hurricanes and typhoons that have left death and
destruction in their paths. The storms listed go back to
the year 1900.
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Time
1 class period for research and answering the set of
questions
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Process
Read through the following set of questions before you
begin your Internet research. As you explore each site, look
for answers to the questions.
Questions about Hurricanes!
- What is the relationship among hurricanes, typhoons,
and tropical cyclones?
- What are the three weather conditions under which a
tropical cyclone usually develops?
- What is the source of energy for all tropical
cyclones?
- Describe the three stages of development of a tropical
cyclone. Include the wind speed in your
description.
- What are the three parts of a hurricane?
- A hurricane was described as a 4 on the Saffir-Simpson
scale. What does this mean?
- What is the diameter of a typical hurricane? What is
the diameter of the eye of a typical hurricane?
- When and where was the worst hurricane in the United
States? How many people died in that hurricane?
- When and where was the worst hurricane in the world?
How many people died in that hurricane?
- What will be the name of the first tropical storm in
the Atlantic and Caribbean in the year 2003?
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Conclusion
In the process of completing this WebQuest, you've become
informed about the phenomena called hurricanes, the
conditions required to generate hurricanes, and the scale
used to classify hurricanes. You have identified the
component parts of hurricanes, and discovered the
relationships among tropical cyclones, typhoons, and
hurricanes. Your have developed research skills as you
explored the web sites given and identified the relevant
information to answer the set of questions above. Did you
know how hurricanes were related to typhoons and tropical
cyclones? Were you surprised to learn how many people have
died as a result of hurricanes over the last 100 years?
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