the.com/hurricane
a heat engine the size of a country, fueled by the ocean's fever and spinning toward land
means a massive, rotating tropical storm system with violent winds (typically 74 mph or more) and torrential rain, born over warm ocean waters.
from From Spanish 'huracán,' which sailors borrowed in the 1500s from the Caribbean Taíno people — their word 'hurakán' named a god or spirit of storms. The Spanish carried the word home along with their wonder at the Atlantic's fury, and English took it from there, where its spelling wandered for centuries (huricane, herricano, hurycano) before settling down. So the name itself is a survivor of the very weather it describes, crossing oceans on the lips of frightened crews.
- energy output
- releases more power than all global electricity combined
- calm eye
- a clear, windless hole at the center of fury
- named since 1953
- originally only women, until 1979 forced fairness
- spin direction
- counterclockwise north, clockwise south of equator
- water kills most
- storm surge, not wind, drowns the deadliest counts
hurricane katrina — 2005 storm that devastated new orleans, killing 1,833 people
hurricane maria — 2017 category 4 storm that destroyed puerto rico's infrastructure