Tropical storm

“ All through this book we have talked about hurricane hunters. By now it is clear that the crew on the plane that goes into the storm at the risk of destruction of the craft and death to the men is not really “hunting” a hurricane. It is the exception rather than the rule when they discover a tropical storm. The first hint comes from some distant island or a ship in the gusty wind circle where the sea and the sky reveal ominous signs of trouble. Somewhere in a busy weather office a large outline map is being covered with figures and symbols. ”

“ The entire sky is overcast, and we see that we are to taste of a regular tropical storm,—the first, in fact, that we have experienced since landing. The wind is moaning through the palms in rapidly rising key, and the surf not far distant is pounding upon the beach with a menacing roar. As the wind rises the natives scurry around, 136gathering up their belongings, and the children take to cover with cries of alarm. Even the dogs slink through the little openings in the house fronts that are cut for their especial use and in a surprisingly short space of time the kampong is deserted. ”

“ This 10 should have been sufficient evidence of the power of the tropical storm to destroy modern warships, but just three months later a big typhoon caught the Navy off guard in the Pacific and proved the case beyond the slightest doubt.
Typhoons are big tropical storms, just like West Indian hurricanes. They form in the vast tropical waters of the Pacific, develop tremendous power, and head for the Philippines and China, sometimes going straight forward and sometimes turning toward Japan before they reach the coast. ”

“ High Winds and Flooding The high winds of a tropical cyclone inflict widespread damage when such a storm leaves the ocean and crosses land. Aids to navigation may be blown out of position or destroyed. Craft in harbors, often lifted by the storm surge, break moorings or drag anchor and are blown ashore and against obstructions. Ashore, trees are blown over, houses are damaged, power lines are blown down, etc. The greatest damage usually occurs in the dangerous semicircle a short distance from the center, where the strongest winds occur. ”

“ The center may still be 100 to 200 miles away in a fully developed tropical cyclone. As the center of the storm comes closer, the ever-stronger wind shrieks through the rigging, and about the superstructure of the vessel. As the center approaches, rain falls in torrents. The wind fury increases. The seas become mountainous. The tops of huge waves are blown off to mingle with the rain and fill the air with water. Visibility is virtually zero in blinding rain and spray. Even the largest and most seaworthy vessels become virtually unmanageable, and may sustain heavy damage. ”

“ These tropical hurricanes, that often uproot the trees of the forest, are seldom of long duration. They are too violent to last for many minutes.
Max was beginning to think that the storm was passed, when the sky immediately overhead burst into a lurid glow, and almost simultaneously a deafening peal of thunder rolled across the valley. Max leaned forward to examine the face of the rock ”

“ The tropical hurricanes are the most violent and most dreaded of all the storms that sweep over any portion of our continent, but fortunately for dwellers on the land, are confined for the most part to the sea, since the atmospheric conditions over the land lead to their loss of energy, although in rare instances they may be re-enforced by uniting with a cyclonic storm, as happened in the case of the Galveston hurricane, and thus continued after reaching the land. ”

“ Most places on these coasts have a really bad tropical storm about once in ten or twenty years. And so it happened that while the population was increasing rapidly in the years from 1920 to 1940, many thousands of flimsy buildings were constructed in the intervals between hurricanes. ”

“ The most severe storms are the hurricanes that begin in the tropical portion of the Atlantic, move westward and northward into the South Atlantic or Gulf States, then turn toward the northeast and disappear while still moving toward Europe. The paths pursued by general cyclonic storms are apparently determined by the so-called general circulation of the atmosphere, but are modified considerably by the formation of cloud and rain or snow attending the storm. ”

“ The responsibility for issuing gale and storm warnings for the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Western Pacific, and South Pacific rests with many countries. In general, warnings of approaching tropical cyclones will include the following information: storm type, central pressure given in hPa, wind speed observed within the storm, storm location, speed and direction of movement, the extent of the affected area, visibility, and the state of the sea, as well as any other pertinent information received. ”

“ This is the lively account of the hair-raising experiences of the men who have probed by sea and air into the inner mysteries of the world’s most terrible storms. Here a world authority writes a vivid story of the hurricane hunters and the warnings going out to terrified people in the path of these tropical giants of the storm world—warnings which have brought comfort and safety in the midst of the terror, because the threat is no longer unknown and unchartered and defenses may be built up against it, thanks to our Weather Bureau. ”

“ If the eye of the storm passes over the vessel, the winds suddenly drop to a breeze as the wall of the eye passes. The rain stops, and the skies clear sufficiently to permit the Sun or stars to shine through holes in the comparatively thin cloud cover. Visibility improves. Mountainous seas approach from all sides in complete confusion. The barometer reaches its lowest point, which may be 11⁄2 or 2 inches below normal in fully developed tropical cyclones. ”

“ Their sudden rise is accounted for by the great quantity of water which in tropical storms is precipitated within a short period of time—the rain falling, not in light sparse drops, but thick and heavy, for several hours together, until the whole surface of the country is saturated, and every rivulet becomes a torrent. ”

“ When a tropical cyclone moves close to a coast, wind often causes a rapid rise in water level, and along with the falling pressure may produce a storm surge. This surge is usually confined to the right of the track in the Northern Hemisphere (left of the track in the Southern Hemisphere) and to a relatively small section of the coastline. It most often occurs with the approach of the storm, but in some cases, where a surge moves into a long channel, the effect may be delayed. ”

“ In special regions only, and at special seasons, is the regular sequence of weather temporarily interrupted by an occasional tropical cyclone. These cyclones—the hurricanes of the West Indies and the typhoons of the China seas belong to the group—although infrequent, are notable features of the climate of the areas in which they occur. The devastation produced by one such storm often affects the economic condition of the people in the district of its occurrence for years. ”

“ The influence of wind on water-level is most remarkable in heavy storms on the flat coasts of the North Sea and Baltic, when the rise may amount to very many feet. In the region of tropical hurricanes the converging wind system of a circular storm causes a heaping up of water capable of devastating the low coral islands of the Pacific. On the 1st of November 1876 a cyclone acting in this way submerged a great area of the level plain of the Ganges delta to a depth of 46 ft. ”

“ The thunder, rolls, and lightning flashes more frequently. The clouds bank up higher and higher, and advance more slowly, until at last they become stationary. These are the ordinary indications of a violent progressive summer storm, which sometimes ends in a tornado.
Like a winter storm, it is produced by the meeting and conflict of the polar and tropical currents under greater differences of temperature and other conditions, and is therefore attended with more violent and complex phenomena than those of a winter storm. ”

“ Thus, storms range in scale from tornadoes and thunderstorms, through tropical cyclones, to widespread extra tropical cyclones. From a local and special interest viewpoint, a storm is a transient occurrence identified by its most destructive or spectacular aspect. Examples are rain storms, wind storms, hail storms, snow storms, etc. Notable special cases are blizzards, ice storms, sandstorms, and dust storms. 3. A term once used by seamen for what is now called VIOLENT STORM on the Beaufort wind scale.
storm center. The area of lowest atmospheric pressure of a cyclone. ”

“ The warning brings to their minds raging seas and screaming gales, relatives and 6 friends lost in other great storms that have roared out of the tropics, ships going down and buildings being torn apart.
Ahead of the storm, the sea becomes angry. Huge rollers break on the beaches with a booming sound. In the distance, a long, low, angry cloud appears on the horizon. If the cloud grows and puts out scud and squalls, spitting rain, the warning flags flutter in the gusts and the big winds will strike the coast with terrible destruction. ”

“ The searching north-east wind had scarcely diminished in its parching fierceness, and in hot suffocating gusts swept fitfully over the broad glittering expanse of water and salt whereon the moon shone brightly—each deadly puff succeeded by the stillness that foretells a tropical hurricane—an absolute absence even of the smallest ruffling of the close atmosphere. ”

“ These storms seldom occur far out in the open ocean, or beyond the tropics, or nearer the equator than nine or ten degrees. Their principal localities are the West India Islands, those of Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon, the north-west coast of Africa, the Bay of Bengal, and the Chinese Sea, where they are variously called hurricanes, tornadoes, and typhoons. A heavy swell upon the sea, a dusky redness of the sky, a close oppressive air, and a wild irregularity in the appearance of things, are the usual precursors of a tropical tempest. ”

“ Whether it be called a hurricane, as in the Atlantic, a typhoon, as in Chinese waters a simoom, as in the Sahara, or a tornado, as on the western coast, such a storm is always a gyratory one, and most dangerous for any ship caught in the current which increases from the circumference to the center, and has only one spot of calm, the middle of the vortex. ”

“ The water vapor that drew the curtain now releases energy alongside of which the A-bomb shrinks to insignificance.
Far below the sea surface, the solid earth trembles. Avalanches of water are torn from the ocean and hurled down the slopes of the gale. A colossal darkening storm begins to move across the ocean. It sucks inward the hot, moist lower atmosphere and brings it along with it, using the vapor to feed its monstrous, seething caldron. Down here at the surface of the earth, its winds are warm and humid. ”

“ So far as anyone knows, the most furious of the typhoons of the Pacific are no bigger or more violent than the worst of the huge hurricanes of the Atlantic and the West Indies. They belong to the same death-dealing breed of storms, but the typhoons come from the bigger ocean; they sweep majestically across these vast waters toward the world’s largest continent; and to the south and southeast lies a longer stretch of hot tropical seas than anywhere else on earth. ”

“ Long before the storm is felt, the horizon towards the N.N.W. is quite dark; a black cloud extends from the sea to the mountain range, and as it advances the sun itself is obscured. A few minutes of dead calm, and then suddenly the dark column approaches; all seems to disappear before it, and the roar of the terrible hurricane of wind and sand now coursing over the land is almost sublime in its horrors. ”

“ Hence during the night the wind is reversed, until in the morning again the equilibrium is restored and there is a calm, so far as these are concerned. These are therefore called the “land and sea breezes.” Of course, it is within the tropics that these breezes are most marked. By the assistance of other winds, a hurricane will there occasionally destroy towns and bring about much damage and loss of life; but better that hundreds should perish by a hurricane than thousands by the pestilence which, but for the storm, would have done its dire work. ”

“ Thus we lived without any incident occurring worth relating—when one day the appearance of the atmosphere indicated a storm, and a very violent hurricane, attended with peals of thunder and lurid flashes of lightning, lasted during the whole of the day and evening. The wind tore up the trees by the roots, blew down our outhouses, made terrible havoc in our garden, and threatened to tumble our hut over our heads. ”

“ What do they teach folks ashore? She was taken aback in the hurricane—the most dangerous thing that can happen to any vessel—a sudden shift of wind threw her on her broadside in the trough of the sea, and with her deck toward the storm, so her hatches were soon beaten in,—all the sooner that she was driven on a coral reef near the Shark's Nose, where the sea was like a sheet of foam around her. ”

“ Timar saw them not. Round the Platten See a hurricane often arises in calm weather without the slightest warning; the fishermen who hear from afar the rustling of the leaves have not time to get back to the shore: the bursting storm drives a snow-cloud before it, from which tiny crystals drift down, sharp as needle-points. ”