Skip Navigation
Share Share
Hurricanes

Hurricanes Hurricanes, with their high winds, high seas, and flooding can be one of nature's most destructive elements. They are powered by warm oceans and moved by trade winds. The high winds around their core generate violent seas. When hurricanes move ashore, they "sweep the ocean inward", create tornadoes, produce torrential rain downpours, floods, and destructive wind velocities.

Come and discover more about hurricanes from these informative sites. You can print this page and write the answers right on the page or use a separate piece of paper.

Severe Weather - Hurricanes

  1. What is a hurricane?

Severe Weather - Hurricanes

  1. Explain how hurricanes are formed.

Storm Science: Hurricane

  1. Explain how radar images can show the amount of rain in a hurricane.

Anatomy of a Hurricane - University of Illinois

  1. Define the eye of a hurricane, the eye wall, and spiral rainbands.
  2. Which of these sections of a hurricane does the most damage?

Storm Science : Hurricane

  1. The eye of the hurricane is very visible in this image. Can you tell which state is to the right of the image?

The Weather Channel

  1. Explain the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning.

Severe Weather - Hurricanes

  1. Of all the damage done in the United States by severe weather, what percentage is done by hurricanes?
  2. Which weather-related phenomenon causes the most damage each year?
  3. Which of the four weather hazards on the pie chart are likely to occur in Utah?

Destruction Caused by Hurricanes

Once a hurricane develops, the Saffir-Simpson Scale is used to classify a hurricane's damage potential. There are five possible categories, from 1-5.

  1. List the wind speed and the observed damage from a Category 1 hurricane.
  2. List the wind speed and the observed damage from a Category 3 hurricane.
  3. List the wind speed and the observed damage from a Category 5 hurricane.
  4. According to this site, which element of a hurricane causes the most hurricane-related deaths--the floods that often accompany hurricanes, the storm surges, or the winds?

Severe Weather - Hurricanes

  1. What are the elements in a hurricane that cause damage?
  2. About how many hurricanes form off the east coast of the United States each year?
  3. What four elements of a hurricane does the Saffir-Simpson Scale measure?
  4. About how often to Category 5 hurricanes occur?
  5. Where and when did Hurricane Gilbert occur? What was its category?
  6. Where and when did Hurricane Hugo occur? What was its category?
  7. Where and when did Hurricane Andrew occur? What was its category?

National Weather Service

  1. Each year on average, how many tropical storms develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of Mexico? How many of these become hurricanes?
  2. What state was impacted by Hurricane Alicia, in what year, and what was its category?
  3. What time of year do hurricanes in the east Pacific begin to form?
  4. What time of year do hurricanes in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico begin to form?
  5. When is the peak hurricane threat for the United States?
  6. When can hurricanes occur in western Pacific?

Hurricanes - University of Illinois

  1. Global wind patterns affect the path of hurricanes. The surface winds of each hemisphere are divided into three wind belts. What are they?
  2. In terms of wind belts, why are the Gulf of Mexico and East Coast of the United States at risk to develop one or more hurricanes each year?
  3. Why do hurricanes dissipate rapidly once they move over cold water or large land masses?

U.S. Geological Survey

  1. What is storm surge and what kinds of damage does it do?

National Hurricane Center

Hurricanes are given human names! The names of hurricanes always used to be female names. Now they alternate between male and female names.

  1. What will be the name of the 1st hurricane in the year 2000?
  2. What will be the name of the 10th hurricane in the year 2001?
  3. What will be name of the 20th hurricane in the year 2002?

Hurricane Timeline

Check out these dates in hurricane history! Describe the hurricanes and their damage from the following dates:

FAQ : HURRICANES, TYPHOONS, AND TROPICAL CYCLONES

  1. What is the name of the most intense hurricane in U.S. history and where and when did it occur? Find the same information for the most deadly and the most damaging hurricanes.

Weather

  1. Write a half-page summary of how tornadoes and hurricanes are different.

Hurricane Quiz

  1. Take this hurricane quiz and record your score.

Disaster Help

  1. What is the name of the organization that helps people all over the world who are victims of natural disasters?

Author: LINDA MOSBACKER - Email linda.mosbacker@slc.k12.ut.us