Safety of production activities. What is a hurricane, tornado and storm? Hurricane typhoon wind of enormous destructive power

As long as the Earth exists, various natural phenomena exist on it. Both individuals and entire nations have suffered for centuries and continue to suffer from natural phenomena. For example, a hurricane, storm, tornado or other disaster may hit the Earth. Some mistakenly believe that these are different names for the same element, but this statement is incorrect. In this article we will try to figure out how they differ.

Hurricane Characteristics

What is a hurricane and what is its strength? This is a wind that blows in a spiral, and its speed can reach about 32 meters per second. Its epicenter is relatively calm, as it is a zone low pressure. It is usually clear and there is a light breeze. The diameter of the epicenter can range from 15 to 40 km. Due to the fact that there is low pressure in the center of the hurricane, sea water is easily sucked in and rushes upward, then it rains down on the ground from the clouds that surround the hurricane. The weather can change dramatically, as he does not stand still, but moves. The duration can be 8 or more days!

Hurricane and man

In the United States of America, hurricanes are usually designated female names. For example, Hurricane Katrina, which swept over the state of Louisiana. Unfortunately, then local residents experienced first-hand what a hurricane was and its destructive effects. Typically, where these natural disasters occur, people do not build expensive stone or brick houses, since the debris can cause serious harm to health. There are inexpensive wooden buildings there that are easy to restore after such natural phenomena. So, this is a terrible element that can cause colossal damage and take people’s lives.

What is a storm

A storm, or, as sailors call it, a storm, is when a very strong wind blows, about 25-35 meters per second, accompanied by heavy precipitation. Storms arise as a result of the collision of cold masses of Arctic air, which moves in a southerly direction, and moist, warm air, which is directed from the tropics to the north. These two streams collide with each other. At the top, a low pressure zone with powerful winds is created. When arctic and tropical air collide, they mix and form cumulus clouds, from which showers and heavy snowfalls then fall to the ground.

Storms are tropical and subtropical. In terms of their destructive power, they are not inferior to hurricanes, although they are structured differently. If you consider what a hurricane is, it becomes obvious that it resembles a donut. Having found yourself on one edge and experiencing the power of the elements as the hurricane moves, you can find yourself at its epicenter, and then on its other edge. Perhaps the storm looks simpler. Rather, it can be compared to a wall that moves. Therefore, when sailors encounter it at sea, they may decide to sail into the storm in order to pass through it. You can do the same on land. It all depends on the situation.

Tornado is a dangerous phenomenon

A tornado is a very scary and at the same time beautiful manifestation of the power of nature. He can rightfully be called a monster. If a storm and a hurricane are formless for those who are caught in them, then a tornado has a clear form. It looks like a funnel that stretches from the clouds to the ground. Its height can be 1600 meters and its diameter 50-500 meters. At the same time, the tornado constantly moves at a speed of 25 to 66 km/h. It is worth noting that inside the funnel the speed is much higher, about 500 km/h.

A tornado appears as a result of the collision of cooled air, which descends to the ground from a cloud, with warm air rising from the ground. At this meeting a vortex appears. Since the air inside the funnel is rarefied, it is able to draw in everything that it encounters on its way. It all depends on the strength of the tornado. There have been cases when trucks and cars got inside. This monster can cause great damage to various buildings and take people's lives. The good news is that this disaster is only raging for a short period of time. Usually, after traveling 25-50 kilometers, the tornado calms down and disappears.

Every day we learn more and more sad news about how the powerful Hurricane Harvey, raging in the Gulf of Mexico, is causing more destruction and claiming an ever-increasing number of lives. Hurricanes, typhoons - all this is practically unknown to residents middle zone, and therefore we decided to tell you about what this natural disaster actually is.

What is a hurricane

The term "hurricane" has two main meanings. Firstly, a hurricane is a storm, that is, a very strong wind whose speed exceeds 30 m/s. Often such storms are accompanied by strong disturbances at sea or ocean. However, we are interested in the second, narrower and more familiar meaning, according to which a hurricane is a low-pressure weather system. It occurs over heated areas of open water of sufficient size and is accompanied by powerful thunderstorms, showers and storms. From space, a hurricane looks like a huge funnel of clouds: it receives energy from the fact that warm, moist air rises, after which the moisture condenses in the form of water vapor and falls as rain, while the warm air, which has become dry, falls down. Hurricanes are also called "warm-core cyclones" because the operating principle of polar and extratropical cyclones is completely different.

Storm winds during a typhoon cause the sea to crash huge waves onto the coastline

The word “hurricane” itself comes from the name of the Mayan god of the wind - Huracan. There is another popular name for a hurricane - “ tropical cyclone" But in Japan and the Far East hurricanes are called typhoons. They arise and maintain their strength only above the surface of large bodies of water, and if the wind blows a hurricane onto land, it will quickly exhaust itself. Therefore, it is the coastal areas that suffer the most from the elements, but heavy rains generated by hurricanes often cause extensive flooding even at a distance of 40 km from the coast. Despite the fact that tropical cyclones often cause enormous damage to infrastructure, they cannot be called absolute evil. Firstly, it is thanks to hurricanes that drought ends in some areas of the Earth and the vegetation landscape is restored. Secondly, tropical cyclones transfer large amounts of energy from equatorial latitudes towards temperate latitudes, which makes them an important component of global atmospheric circulation processes. This leads to a decrease in temperature on various parts of the planet's surface, so that it avoids overheating and maintains a stable temperate climate.

What does a hurricane consist of: the eye of the storm

Diagram of the structure of a hurricane: red arrows show flows of warm air, blue arrows show gradually cooling air

Eye of the Storm(or simply “eye”) is the central part of the cyclone, in which warm air falls down. As a rule, it retains a regular round shape, and its diameter can reach from 3 to 370 km, but on average the size of the eye is 30−60 km. An interesting “stadium effect” is associated with it: in large cyclones, the upper part of the eye is noticeably wider than the lower, which, when observed from the inside, actually resembles the shape of a stadium bleacher.

Large cyclones usually have a clear eye and a clear sky; in small ones it can be partially or completely covered with clouds, which is characterized by significant thunderstorm activity.

Wall of the eye

The eye wall of a storm can be seen either from inside the hurricane or in photographs of space satellites

In fact, the eye is an opening that forms a ring of dense thunderstorm cumulus clouds. Here the clouds reach their greatest height, but the maximum wind speed is not achieved at the top of the wall, but at a low altitude above the surface of the water or land. Remember the videos from the Internet where strong winds lift small buildings off the ground and blow away cars? This is precisely the destructive power of a hurricane wall passing over a populated area.

Strong cyclones (category 3+) change the wall several times throughout their existence. At the same time, the old wall narrows to 10-25 km, and it is replaced by a new one of larger diameter. Changing the wall is a good sign: during each such procedure the cyclone weakens, but it is worth keeping in mind that after final formation new wall it will quickly regain its former strength.

Outer zone

The wide canvas of a hurricane consists of so-called rain bands - lines of dense thunderstorm clouds that slowly diverge from the center of the cyclone. The wall and outer zone is the area where moist air rises through circulation cells, but they are all smaller than the central one.

What happens when a hurricane makes landfall? An increase in surface friction causes a concentration of air flows and, as a result, rainfall.

However, the hurricane is not limited to these categories. Due to the centrifugal movement of air, it forms cloud cover even at very high altitudes. These clouds have little in common with the dense cumulus cover of the wall and outer zone: light and cirrus, they move quickly from the center of the cyclone and gradually disappear. They can become the first signal warning of the imminent arrival of a cyclone.

Hurricane Harvey

The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey: highways turned into swimming pools dirty water

So what makes it stand out among its peers? Harvey", currently turning Texas into a water-covered wasteland? For starters, this is the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since the famous Katrina, which hit the United States in 2005. He was initially classified as category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale. This is the so-called huge hurricane": the wind speed on its territory reaches 50−70 m/s, and the flooded zone is located at an altitude of up to 3 meters above sea level, while the floods extend ten kilometers inland.

On the last day of summer, the US National Weather Service reported that Harvey had weakened and moved from a tropical storm to a tropical depression: wind speeds had dropped significantly, but heavy rainfall was still continuing. We can only hope that the cyclone will soon disappear altogether: at present, the federal authorities are finding it difficult to give even an approximate estimate of the damage that the disaster caused along its entire path.

Among the processes occurring in nature there are storms and hurricanes. They can cause considerable damage, both material and related to human casualties. Let's look at the difference between a storm and a hurricane.

Definition

Hurricane

The discrepancy between atmospheric pressure parameters in different air zones leads to the formation of strong winds. A hurricane is a type of wind. It is characterized by enormous power and destructive force. Its direction differs in different hemispheres of the Earth. In the South - movement occurs clockwise, in the North - in reverse side. For convenience, weather forecasters give hurricanes names.

Hurricane

Storm

Storm is also a type of wind. Its scale is not so grandiose, but it is also capable of causing serious damage to agricultural land, communications routes and other important objects. Most often, the elements are accompanied by dust and sand rising up and transporting over long distances, and in winter – snow.

Storm

Comparison

Let's pay attention to some details that make up the difference between a storm and a hurricane.

Wind speed

This is one of the main features that allows us to separate two natural phenomena from each other. The hurricane moves more rapidly, its speed starts from 30 m/s. The speed of a storm, inferior in this respect to a hurricane, can reach 20 m/s.

Wind power

To describe the power of a hurricane, the following example can be used. If a nuclear explosion were carried out in the sea, it could raise a mass of water equal to 10 million tons. One of the hurricanes (which took place in the area of the island of Puerto Rico) caused 2.5 billion tons of water to fall to the ground. The storm is a more moderate element. Wind conditions, including gale and hurricane, are displayed on the Beaufort scale, where their strength is rated in points.

Duration

This factor also relates to how a storm differs from a hurricane. Hurricanes often last longer. He can move around the planet for almost two weeks. A storm can subside in a few hours, but often lasts for several days. Both natural disasters often rage, accompanied by heavy rainfall.

Consequences

A hurricane moving at breakneck speed tears off the roofs of buildings, demolishes communication towers, breaks wires, and devastates fields. Massive air currents, rotating, uproot trees, tear away and carry light buildings, cars, animals and people who did not have time to take cover. The effect of a hurricane entails the appearance of secondary destructive factors: landslides, landslides, floods.

Damages from a storm are usually smaller, but they can also be very significant. This phenomenon is often accompanied by the occurrence of drifts. Such consequences are especially typical for snow storms. As a result, traffic movement becomes impossible, the communication system is damaged, and the power supply fails. During a storm, as with a hurricane, people and animals can die.

Hurricane in the broad sense of the word, it is a strong wind with a speed of over 30 m/s. Hurricane (in the tropics) Pacific Ocean- typhoon) always blows counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth, and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

This concept includes a breeze, a storm, and a hurricane itself. This wind with a speed of over 120 km/h (12 points) “lives”, that is, moves on the planet, usually for 9-12 days. Forecasters give it a name to make it easier to work with. A few years ago these were only women's names, but after much protest by women's organizations, this discrimination was abolished.

Hurricanes are one of the most powerful natural forces. In terms of their harmful effects, they are not inferior to such terrible natural disasters as earthquakes. This is explained by the fact that they carry colossal energy. The amount of it released by an average hurricane in one hour is equal to the energy of a nuclear explosion of 36 Mgt.

Hurricane wind destroys strong and demolishes light buildings, devastates sown fields, breaks wires and knocks down power and communication lines, damages highways and bridges, breaks and uproots trees, damages and sinks ships, causes accidents in utility and energy networks in production . There were cases when hurricane winds destroyed dams and dams, which led to large floods, threw trains off the rails, tore bridges from their supports, knocked down factory chimneys, and washed ships ashore.

Hurricanes and stormy winds in winter often lead to snow storms, when huge masses of snow move from one place to another at high speed. Their duration can be from several hours to several days. Snowstorms that occur simultaneously with snowfall, at low temperatures or with sudden changes in temperature are especially dangerous. Under these conditions, a snowstorm turns into a true natural disaster, causing significant damage to regions. Houses, farm buildings and livestock buildings are covered with snow. Sometimes the snowdrifts reach the height of a four-story building. Over a large area, the movement of all types of transport stops for a long time due to snow drifts. Communication is disrupted, the supply of electricity, heat and water is cut off. Human casualties are also common.

In our country, hurricanes most often occur in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Chukotka, and the Kuril Islands. One of the strongest hurricanes in Kamchatka occurred on the night of March 13, 1988. Glass and doors were broken in thousands of apartments, the wind bent traffic lights and poles, roofs were torn off hundreds of houses, and trees were knocked down. The power supply to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky failed, and the city was left without heat and water. The wind speed reached 140 km/h.

In Russia, hurricanes, storms and tornadoes can occur at any time of the year, but most often in August and September. This cyclicality helps forecasts. Forecasters classify hurricanes, storms and tornadoes as emergency events with a moderate speed of spread, so most often it will be possible to issue a storm warning. It can be transmitted through civil defense channels: after the sound of the siren “Attention everyone!” you need to listen to local radio and television.

The most important characteristic of a hurricane is wind speed. From the table below. 1 (on the Beaufort scale) the dependence of wind speed and the name of the modes is visible, which indicates the strength of the hurricane (storm, storm).

Hurricane sizes vary widely. Usually its width is taken to be the width of the zone of catastrophic destruction. Often this zone is supplemented with an area of storm force winds with relatively little damage. Then the width of the hurricane is measured in hundreds of kilometers, sometimes reaching 1000.

For typhoons (tropical hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean), the destruction strip is usually 15-45 km.

The average duration of a hurricane is 9-12 days.

Often the downpours that accompany a hurricane are much more dangerous than the hurricane wind itself (they cause flooding and destruction of buildings and structures).

Table 1. Name of wind regime depending on wind speed

Points	Wind speed (mph)	Name of wind mode	Signs
			The smoke is coming straight
		Light wind	Smoke bends
		Light breeze	The leaves are moving
		Light breeze	The leaves are moving
		Moderate breeze	Leaves and dust are flying
		Fresh breeze	Thin trees sway
		Strong breeze	Thick branches sway
		Strong wind	Tree trunks bend
			The branches are breaking
		Severe storm	Roof tiles and pipes are torn off
		Total Storm	Trees are uprooted
			Damage everywhere
			Great destruction

Storm is a wind whose speed is less than the speed of a hurricane. However, it is quite large and reaches 15-20 m/s. Losses and destruction from storms are significantly less than from hurricanes. Sometimes a strong storm is called a storm.

The duration of storms is from several hours to several days, the width is from tens to several hundred kilometers. Both are often accompanied by fairly significant precipitation.

In the summer, heavy downpours accompanying hurricanes often, in turn, cause such natural phenomena as mudflows and landslides.

Thus, in July 1989, the powerful typhoon “Judy” swept from the south to the north of the Far Eastern region with a speed of 46 m/s and heavy rainfall. 109 settlements were flooded, in which about 2 thousand houses were damaged, 267 bridges were destroyed and demolished, 1,340 km of roads, 700 km of power lines were disabled, and 120 thousand hectares of farmland were flooded. 8 thousand people were evacuated from dangerous areas. There were also human casualties.

Classification of hurricanes and storms

Hurricanes are usually divided into tropical and non-tropical. Tropical are called hurricanes that originate in tropical latitudes, and extratropical- in extratronic ones. In addition, tropical hurricanes are often divided into hurricanes that originate over Atlantic ocean and over Quiet. The latter are usually called typhoons.

There is no generally accepted, established classification of storms. Most often they are divided into two groups: vortex and flow.

Vortex They are complex vortex formations caused by cyclonic activity and spreading over large areas.

Vortex storms are divided into dust, snow and squall. In winter they turn into snow. In Russia, such storms are often called blizzards, blizzards, and blizzards.

Squalls usually occur suddenly and are extremely short in duration (several minutes). For example, within 10 minutes the wind speed can increase from 3 to 31 m/s.

Streaming- These are local phenomena of small distribution. They are unique, sharply isolated and inferior in importance to vortex storms.

Stream storms are divided into katabatic and jet storms. With drainage, the air flow moves along the slope from top to bottom. Jets are characterized by the fact that the air flow moves horizontally or even up a slope. They most often pass between chains of mountains connecting valleys.

Tornado

Tornado (tornado) is an ascending vortex consisting of extremely rapidly rotating air mixed with particles of moisture, sand, dust and other suspended matter. It is a rapidly rotating funnel of air hanging from a cloud and falling to the ground in the form of a trunk. This is the smallest form of vortex air movement in terms of size and the highest rotation speed.

Tornado it is difficult not to notice: it is a dark column of spinning air with a diameter of several tens to several hundred meters. As he approaches, a deafening roar is heard. A tornado originates under a thundercloud and seems to hang from it when it has a curved axis of rotation (the air rotates in a column counterclockwise at a speed of up to 100 meters per second). Inside the giant air funnel, the pressure is always low, so everything that the vortex is capable of tearing off the ground is sucked in and rises in a spiral.

A tornado moves above the ground at an average speed of 50-60 km/h. Observers note that his appearance immediately causes panic.

Tornadoes form in many areas globe. Very often accompanied by thunderstorms, hail and downpours of extraordinary strength and size.

They occur both over the water surface and over land. Most often - during hot weather and high humidity, when air instability in the lower layers of the atmosphere appeared especially sharply. As a rule, a tornado is born from a cumulonimbus cloud, descending to the ground in the form of a dark funnel. Sometimes they occur in clear weather. What parameters characterize tornadoes?

Firstly, the size of a tornado cloud in diameter is 5-10 km, less often up to 15. The height is 4-5 km, sometimes up to 15. The distance between the base of the cloud and the ground is usually small, on the order of several hundred meters. Secondly, at the base of the mother cloud of a tornado there is a collar cloud. Its width is 3-4 km, thickness is approximately 300 m, the upper surface is at an altitude of, for the most part, 1500 m. Under the collar cloud lies a wall cloud, from the lower surface of which the tornado itself hangs. Thirdly, the width of the wall cloud is 1.5-2 km, thickness 300-450 m, the lower surface is at an altitude of 500-600 m.

The tornado itself is like a pump, sucking in and lifting various relatively small objects into the cloud. Once in the vortex ring, they are supported in it and transported for tens of kilometers.

Funnel - main component tornado It is a spiral vortex. The internal cavity is from tens to hundreds of meters in diameter.

In the walls of a tornado, air movement is directed in a spiral and often reaches speeds of up to 200 m/s. Dust, debris, various objects, people, animals rise up not in the internal cavity, usually empty, but in the walls.

The thickness of the walls of dense tornadoes is significantly less than the width of the cavity and measures a few meters. For vague ones, on the contrary, the thickness of the walls can be much greater than the width of the cavity and reaches several tens and even hundreds of meters.

The air rotation speed in the funnel can reach 600-1000 km/h, sometimes more.

The time of formation of a vortex is usually calculated in minutes, less often in tens of minutes. The total time of existence is also calculated in minutes, but sometimes in hours. There were cases when a group of tornadoes was formed from one cloud (if the cloud reached 30-50 km).

The total length of the tornado’s path ranges from hundreds of meters to tens and hundreds of kilometers, and average speed travel approximately 50-60 km/h. The average width is 350-400 m. Hills, forests, seas, lakes, rivers are not an obstacle. When crossing water basins, a tornado can completely drain a small lake or swamp.

One of the features of the movement of a tornado is its jumping. After traveling some distance along the ground, it can rise into the air without touching the ground, and then descend again. In contact with the surface, it causes great destruction.

Such actions are determined by two factors - the ramming impact of rapidly rotating air and the large pressure difference between the periphery and the inside of the funnel - due to the enormous centrifugal force. The last factor determines the effect of absorption of everything that comes in the way. Animals, people, cars, small and light houses can be lifted into the air and carried hundreds of meters and even kilometers, trees can be uprooted, roofs can be torn off. A tornado destroys residential and industrial buildings, breaks power supply and communication lines, disables equipment, and often leads to casualties.

In Russia, they most often occur in the central regions, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, on the coast and in the waters of the Black, Azov, Caspian and Baltic seas.

A tornado that originated on July 8, 1984 in the north-west of Moscow and passed almost to Vologda (up to 300 km), by a lucky coincidence, had a monstrous, incredible force. big cities and sat down. The width of the destruction strip reached 300-500 m. This was accompanied by the fall of large hail.

The consequences of another tornado of this family, called the “Ivanovo Monster,” were terrifying. It arose 15 km south of Ivanovo and zigzagged about 100 km through forests, fields, and suburbs of Ivanovo, then reached the Volga, destroyed the Lunevo camp site and died out in the forests near Kostroma. In the Ivanovo region alone, 680 residential buildings, 200 industrial and Agriculture, 20 schools, kindergartens. 416 families were left homeless, 500 garden and dacha buildings were destroyed. More than 20 people died.

Statistics tell about tornadoes near Arzamas, Murom, Kursk, Vyatka and Yaroslavl. In the north they were observed near the Solovetsky Islands, in the south - in the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. In the Black and Azov Seas, an average of 25-30 tornadoes occur over 10 years. Tornadoes that form on the seas very often reach the coasts, where they not only do not lose, but even increase in strength.

It is extremely difficult to predict the location and time of a tornado. Therefore, for the most part, they arise suddenly for people; it is even more impossible to predict the consequences.

Most often, tornadoes are divided according to their structure: dense (sharply limited) and vague (unclearly limited). Moreover, the transverse size of the funnel of a vague tornado, as a rule, is much larger than that of a sharply limited one.

In addition, tornadoes are divided into four groups: dust devils, small short-acting ones, small long-acting ones, and hurricane whirlwinds.

Small, short-acting tornadoes have a path length of no more than a kilometer, but have significant destructive power. They are relatively rare. The path length of small long-acting tornadoes is several kilometers. Hurricane vortices are larger tornadoes and travel several tens of kilometers during their movement.

If you don’t hide from a strong tornado in time, it can lift and throw a person from a height of the 10th floor, bring flying objects and debris down on him, and crush him in the ruins of a building.

The best means of escape when a tornado is approaching- take refuge in a shelter. To receive up-to-date information from the civil defense service, it is best to use a battery-powered radio: most likely, at the beginning of a tornado, the power supply will stop, and it is necessary to be aware of messages from the civil defense and emergency headquarters every minute. Very often, secondary disasters (fires, floods, accidents) are much larger and more dangerous than destruction, so constantly receiving information can protect. If you have time, you need to close the doors, ventilation, and dormer windows. The main difference from hurricane protection: during a tornado, you can only hide from disaster in basements and underground structures, and not inside the building itself.

Powerful hurricanes have been raging on our planet for a long time. The most powerful hurricane in human history was recorded back in October 1780. The Great Hurricane San Calixto killed 27,000 people. This natural disaster struck the Caribbean archipelago and is considered the most powerful hurricane in human history. Global changes Temperatures and climate have led to the fact that strong hurricanes still rage on Earth today.

What is a hurricane, typhoon, tornado

A hurricane is the strongest type of cyclone, in which the wind acquires great destructive power. These powerful cyclones originate near the equator and most often rage near North and South America.

In Asia and the Far East, typhoons arise, which are less destructive than hurricanes. This atmospheric phenomenon is clearly visible from space. It has the shape of a spiral with a hole in the center (“eye of the storm”). The air in this spiral moves at speeds of up to 300 km/h.

A tornado is a whirlwind in the form of a huge air funnel. It is formed under cumulus clouds. Such a funnel with a height and a diameter of up to several kilometers has the shape of a cone and descends to the very surface of the earth. Rotating at great speed, the tornado pulls into itself and tears apart objects that lie in its path.

All these atmospheric phenomena are very dangerous. Hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes cause great damage to buildings, destroy crops, break trees and tear down power lines.

The 10 most powerful hurricanes known in the world

Raged in 1780 over the Caribbean archipelago. The disaster led to the death of 27 thousand people. According to the description of witnesses to this event, a terrible howl of the wind drowned out the voices of people. The wind uprooted trees and stripped their bark. Near the island of Grenada, the hurricane wrecked 19 ships. He even moved heavy cannons over long distances. The British fleet was smashed to pieces near St. Lucia. In Barbados alone, 4,500 people died.

2. Hurricane Galveston. In 1900, it raged in Texas. The wind blew at a speed of 215 km/h (category 4). It was the deadliest disaster in the United States, killing 6,000 people and destroying 3,600 homes.

3. Hurricane Camille. In August 1969, this hurricane swept through Cuba and Gulf of Mexico. The wind speed reached 310 km/h, the wave height was 7.3 m. This hurricane led to floods and the death of 259 people. It destroyed every structure at the mouth of the Mississippi River and caused $9.14 billion in damage.

4. Hurricane Bhola. In 1970, Bangladesh and India were hit by this hurricane. Up to 500 thousand people died. Although the hurricane was of the third category in terms of wind speed and strength, it caused flooding in the Ganges delta. Crops and entire villages were simply washed away by the hurricane.

Aftermath of Hurricane Bhola

5. Supertyphoon Nina. Raged in 1975 in China. It caused large floods and destroyed the Banquiao Dam and other structures. Up to 239 thousand people became victims of the typhoon.

6. Hurricane Mitch. Passed in 1998 through the territories of Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The wind speed was up to 280 km/h. 11 thousand people died. 3 million people were left homeless.

7. Hurricane Katrina. It raged in 2005 in the United States and flooded 80% of New Orleans with water. 1,836 people died and half a million people lost their homes. The situation was aggravated by incidents of looting, and the police were unable to cope with the situation. The hurricane caused $80 billion in damage.

8. Hurricane Ike. This cyclone hit the United States in 2008. Its diameter was up to 900 km, and the wind speed was up to 140 km/h. Brought losses of $30 billion.

Swept over the territory of Vietnam and the Philippines in 2013. The wind speed reached 389 km/h. The typhoon killed 8 thousand people, 11 million people were left homeless.

10. Hurricane Sandy. Raged in the USA in 2012. 113 people died. The states of New Jersey and New York had the largest losses of property.

The most powerful hurricanes in Russia

Hurricanes are rare in Russia. But still, these natural disasters do not bypass our region.

1. In 1904, a tornado passed through the central part of Russia, which was observed in the Tula region, Moscow and Yaroslavl. There were about 100 dead people. The tornado destroyed Karacharovo, Lyublino, and Sokolniki. In some places, trees were uprooted and the wind blew off the roofs of houses.

2. In May 2017, hurricane winds blew at a speed of up to 30 m/s in Moscow and the Moscow region. 18 people were killed, 170 people were injured. Many residential buildings were damaged and roofs were blown off in Moscow and its environs. The hurricane tore down many electrical wires, disrupting traffic in the city public transport. In some places in the region, hail up to 6 cm in size fell. This hurricane was the strongest since the tornado of 1904.

Hurricane Safety Guidelines

Although hurricanes do not happen often in Russia, it is necessary to know how to behave in such a case.

Turn off the gas and electrical appliances and close the taps.
Place documents, essential items and medicines in your suitcase. Take a supply of food, water and take refuge with your family in a safe shelter.
If there is no shelter, then furniture, niches and door openings can serve as shelter in the house.

Do not go near the windows; it is better to curtain them.
If a hurricane finds you in a field, you can take shelter in any ravine or depression. You can hide under the bridge.
Avoid billboards and downed wires to avoid getting electrocuted.
Do not stand in narrow passages; there may be a crush in a crowd of people.

You should not linger in the lowlands, because... they may be flooded.
Arrange a meeting with your family and leave them your contact information.
After the storm is over, check for gas leaks before lighting matches.

Water can become contaminated, so it must be purified and boiled before drinking.
Find out if your neighbors need medical help.

The most powerful hurricanes usually rage on the coasts of warm oceans and seas. People in America, Mexico and Cuba suffer the most from them. But the Earth's climate is changing, and these natural disasters are now not uncommon even in Europe and Russia. To prevent the consequences, weather forecasters try to predict the time and path of hurricanes in advance, and governments try to take all necessary measures for the safety of people.