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= Hurricane Ted = Some people shouldn't evacuate as it's too expensive and difficult. Some hurricanes aren't as bad as in the forecast. In fact, people with NO family nearby must afford a hotel, food, and gas. It is hard for people, who have pets, in-order to leave, because pets are so forbidden during evacuation, and because pets might get hurt. During a natural-disaster, people should be allowed to stay, and ONLY go if they need to.

Preparation
Along the coast of Africa, it strikes the US. The NHC predicts on these deadly, heavy thunderstorms are forming tropical clusters. Meteorologists work around the clock for the NHC (National Hurricane Center) in Miami, Florida. They are using satellites to watch these storms develop and organize. These storm clusters could be the beginning of a hurricane that will help protect lives and property. It tracks weather in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Eastern Pacific Ocean. It provides advisories and alerts, called TSHW (tropical storms, and hurricane watches), for the US and the Caribbean countries. Uh oh...our disturbance, the hurricane, has moved across the ocean and into the Caribbean! It has grown into a tropical storm, and it's headed to the coast of Florida! Once the storm reaches tropical-storm-status, the NHC names the storm "Tropical Storm Ted." A tropical storm (aka, hurricane), has winds of over 40 mph. Also, names for tropical storms and hurricanes alternate between male and female names. To get a closer look at Ted, the center sends airplanes into the storm. The pilots and scientists onboard are called "Hurricane-Hunters", the people that can determine the location, strength and movement of the storm. Then, they report their findings to the NHC. The planes carry tubes with parachutes, attached, that carry instruments and radio-equipment. The tubes are called "dropsondes", which measures air-pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind-speed. Then, NHC collects data, which comes from weather-stations, ships, buoys and coastal-weather-radars, about the storm from other places, too. ALL that data and information are then fed into a computer to create models, which predict the path and strength of storms. But the winds of Tropical-Storm-Ted are zooming faster. NHC, which recommends that several coastal-forecast offices be prepared to issue local-warnings, has issued storm-watches. Also, the NWS (National Weather Service), radio, station, TV and the Internet, all broadcast these warnings. The winds are now 75 mph, and Ted is officially a hurricane. In fact, once a storm is within 3 or 4 days of landfall, NHC, which works to communicate its forecasts and warnings to the public, goes into ultra-high gear. Now, Hurricane-Ted is heading towards land. And so, towns along the coast are asking the people who live there to evacuate. Before they go, the people board-up their houses to protect them from wind and flying objects.

Hurricane-Season
Did you know that Hurricane-Season is between June 1 and November 30? It's an exceedingly intense, exiting job for the meteorologists at NHC during this period. Tropical-storms and hurricanes must be watched 24 hours a day at this time. All-year-round, scientists at NHC, which study data from all sources, research hurricanes. Scientists use a scale of between 1 and 5, to describe the strength of a hurricane. For example, Category 1 is the weakest, having winds JUST between 74 mph, and 95 mph. This type of hurricane causes between 10% and 20% damage to small buildings and trees. However, Category 5 is the strongest of all, having wind-speeds of over 155 mph! That type of hurricane is SO powerful, it can even destroy entire cities and towns! Scientists use the alphabet to name hurricanes. For example, as-soon-as the first tropical-storm of Hurricane-Season forms, scientists give it a name that starts with 'A.' If tropical-storms were named alphabetically, this means that there could be a LOT of tropical-storms each year! Hurricane-Season is when hurricanes begin developing, because that's when the water are the WARMEST! Many hurricanes that affect the United-States, come from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Storms, which form off the west coast of Africa, gain strength as the winds blow them from east-to-west across the warm waters of the Atlantic. Sorry it's unclear, but still this map shows how vulnerable different regions in the US are to hurricanes:

How hurricanes form
A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone, a large, swirling storm with strong winds and lots of rain. Tropical cyclones form over the warmest parts of the ocean. They start when warm water heats the air right above it. That makes the air less dense, so it rises. Cooler air rushes in to fill the space left by the rising air molecules, and the process continues. The ocean heats the air, it rises, and more air rushes in. This is what weather reports refer to as a low-pressure system. It's sort of like a big vacuum, sucking up air from all around it. The cool air wants to travel in a straight line, but the spinning of the earth curves its path. The high winds kick up the ocean causing big waves and rough seas. Meanwhile, in the center, warm air continues to rise adding more and more energy to the system. The warm air carries water vapor with it which condenses into clouds and rain. As the system grows stronger, the low-pressure center becomes a well-defined eye. Even though the strongest winds happen right around it, it's always calm, sometimes even sunny inside the eye. The storm is now a tropical depression, a massive system of wind rotating around a column of low-pressure air. Those winds move the storm across the sea. As-long-as it's over warm water, it just gets stronger and stronger. ''Once the winds reach 74 miles per hour, it's officially a Category 1 hurricane. The strongest hurricanes are Category 5, with winds over 157 miles per hour. In other parts of the world, hurricanes are called different things, like typhoons and cyclonic storms.'' But they're all basically the same thing. Hurricanes start to run out of steam when they hit colder waters or land. They end in a big old downpour. But before they're through, they can cause serious damage! The wind can rip up trees, destroy crops and houses, and push giant waves called storm surges onto shores. That could lead to heavy flooding, which is never a good thing. If you live near the Atlantic, always make sure your parents say it's OK to go outside afterward. And when you do go out, don't mess around with fallen trees and puddles. If there's a downed power line nearby, they could be really dangerous.