The Monster Storm

The Monster Storm

The Monster Storm
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	5.63

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		deceptive, funnel-shaped, meteorologists, torrential, violent, definitely, entire, lasts, daily, actually, bands, eastern, powerful, spiral, certain, however
	content words:		Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic, South Pacific, United States, Caribbean Sea

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The Monster Storm
By Trista L. Pollard

¹     Our weather can change daily. One day it could be clear and sunny, and the next day you could have clouds and rain. There are also moments when you may have severe weather. Hurricanes are a form of severe weather. They are violent storms that have whirling or rotating winds. Winds are the movement of air over the Earth's surface. This air moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. These winds are called sustained winds because they move at a certain speed during the entire storm. In fact, meteorologists, or scientists who study weather, are the people who calculate sustained winds. They find the average wind speed of a storm during a period of one minute. Hurricane winds travel 74 miles per hour or more. Some of the worst hurricanes in history had wind speeds of 155 miles per hour or more. Keep in mind, these winds are different from the wind gusts you feel on a chilly fall day.

²     Hurricanes start out as tropical storms. Tropical storms form in oceans where there is low pressure. An area of low pressure means that air is rising. They have rotating winds that move 39 to 73 miles per hour. There are also tropical depressions. These storms have rotating winds up to 38 miles per hour. In addition to rotating winds, hurricanes can be 250 to 500 miles wide. This means that they affect a larger area of land and people. The hurricanes we hear about most often are the Atlantic Ocean storms. In fact, these storms happen in other oceans. In the western Pacific Ocean, these storms are called typhoons. In this area there are about 20 hurricanes (typhoons) a year. In the Indian Ocean and around Australia, these storms are called cyclones. The North Atlantic Ocean has about five hurricanes per year. Hurricanes do not form in the South Atlantic and eastern South Pacific oceans.

³     Just like there are four seasons during the year, there is a hurricane season. The season begins in June and goes through October. However, some of our worst hurricanes have occurred from August through November. This is also the time when people on the United States coast and islands in the Caribbean Sea need to pay attention. Hurricanes have two major areas. The eye of the hurricane is found in the center of the storm. This area is calm and appears pleasant. However, it is deceptive. Most people say that the eye has blue skies. Actually, the clouds appear light, but the sky is not blue. The weather in this area also lasts for a short period of time. This causes people to think the storm is over. The eye wall is where the bad weather occurs. In this area there are violent thunderstorms and strong winds. There are also torrential or heavy rains. Around the eye wall are spiral bands. Spiral bands are thin clouds that cause most of the rainfall. These bands can also produce tornados. Tornados are powerful, funnel-shaped, rotating columns of air. These funnels are also known as twisters. Hurricanes have been known to produce 10 to 20 tornados. As you can see, hurricanes are definitely the "monster storms" of our planet.

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