When people hear about hurricanes, they often focus on the category rating: Category 1 through 5, based on maximum wind speeds. But not all hurricanes with the same wind speeds are alike. Some are compact storms while others can span the size of entire states. Larger hurricanes bring far greater damage, generating wider footprints of high winds, heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surge.
When people hear about hurricanes, they often focus on the category rating: Category 1 through 5, based on maximum wind speeds. But not all hurricanes with the same wind speeds are alike. Some are compact storms while others can span the size of entire states. Larger hurricanes bring far greater damage, generating wider footprints of high winds, heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surge.
A new study led by Purdue University researchers has uncovered why some hurricanes grow significantly larger than others and why this growth occurs rapidly under certain ocean conditions. The research shows, for the first time, that hurricanes grow in size much faster when traveling over locally warm waters where the ocean surface is significantly warmer than the rest of the tropical oceans.
„This discovery can be put directly into use for daily forecasting of hurricane size and impacts“, said Danyang Wang, postdoctoral researcher in Purdue’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). „It can also be used to better model hurricane size in long-term risk models used by industry to evaluate property risks.“
The discovery, led by Wang with guidance from professor Dan Chavas of Purdue’s EAPS department, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Wang developed the underlying theory, extracted and analyzed data from historical records and climate simulations, and wrote the manuscript.
