What's a hurricane really like?

Question

Is it like a lot of lightning or just gusty winds with rain?

Answer 1

Say you live on a coastal beach, you failed to evacuate, and a major hurricane is directly approaching your area. The outer rainbands will first affect you. These rainbands contain thunderstorms and can produce severe weather including tornados. In between these outer bands, the sun may shine.

As the hurricane grows closer, the winds will increase, most likey from the east, and a heavier, continuous shield of rain and squalls will approach and envelop the area. The winds will likely become sustained at tropical storm force 39+ mph at this time. There will be very little thunder and lightning from here on.

After several hours, depending of course on the size and speed of the hurricane, it's likely that over 4 inches of rain has accumulated. Now the winds are at hurricane force, 74+ mph. The rain is blowing sideways. Shingles and other small debris are being removed from houses and business and becoming airborne. The winds begin to rapidly increase as the eye approaches the coast.

An hour later, depending, again on the size and speed of the hurricane, the winds are sustained at 120mph, gusting to 150mph. Major and extensive damage is occuring to trees, powerlines, houses, buildings, warehouses, etcetera. The rain is still falling very heavily. The temperature is in the low 80s with a dewpoint around 75. Six or more inches of rain has fallen. At the coast, 25 foot breakers are pounding away and causing major beach erosion. The air is filled with foam and rain and sand. The eyewall approaches.

The winds are 140mph, gusting to 170. You cannot go outdoors. Rain is being driven through concrete. You can't hear yourself think. Extreme or total damage is occuring. Here comes the storm surge. The ocean comes inland 300 yards, to your hotel. Rises a good 15 feet. Washes everything in what looks like a washing machine of boats, roofs, cars, busses, trucks, etc. The eye is overhead.

The winds lighten, and diminish to 0. The sun may come out. You can look up and see towering, 60,000 foot clouds all around you. The water is receeding, carring various objects with it to the sea. The sky darkens again.

Now the above sequence of events will occur in revese, and the winds will blow from the opposite direction.

Answer 2

It's starts off very slowly. Some light winds...a few clouds.

A Hurricane Watch is issued for your area.

Then the first rain bands hit. Gusty winds, squally rain. Thunder.

And then it clears up. The sun may even come out again.

A Hurricane Warning is issued in your area.

Another set of rain bands come through and another at shorter and shorter intervals.

The wind picks up blowing towards the eye of the hurricane.

Ominous clouds appear. The rain now falls nonstop. A tornado may touch down in your area. The wind begins to whistle as it passes through the trees.

As the pressure keeps dropping, your ears start to pop.
You lose electricity and all goes dark. The rain and wind are quite fierce now and you hear tree limbs falling on your roof.

"We should have evacuated..." you say to yourself.

The wind howls now. Your roof is leaking and the front door is...breathing...in and out with each wind gust. Off in the distance, an electrical transformer pops, lighting up the sky.
Your hear a pine tree snap in half and land close to the house.
The wind is so loud you can barely think. Your roof is leaking in earnest. You hear a loud crash from outside but you're not sure what it is. So you climb into the bathtub and pull a mattress over yourself.

"I'm so sorry..." you mutter to yourself.

It's okay. The eye of the hurricane is almost here. You're almost halfway through the storm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6mq2c7J1Xk

Answer 3

It's way more than lightning and gusty winds with rain. The guy before me described it fairly well. I live about 100 miles east from where Rita came ashore and we experienced 8hours of sideways rain and wind. We were without power for 4 days. If you live within a few miles of the coast the biggest danger of a hurricane is the storm surge. The eastern side of the storm is always the most violent. Katrina came ashore about 100 miles to the east of me and the weather here was breezy with a small occasional shower. Nothing like what we experienced for Rita.

Answer 4

nevermore and Anthony did a good job..........having been through 9 hurricanes on St Thomas in 30 years.....including Marilyn which leveled this island....and having written a book on hurricane survival for yachtsmen........let me add......

the wind and the rain.....ever have someone turn a garden hose sprayer on you? Now, imagine this hose nozzle is 20 miles wide and 5,000 feet tall.......at 30 miles an hour the only way you can see is to be wearing a SCUBA diver's mask......

you may have been caught out in a summer squall once upon a time, or stuck your arm out of a car when its doing 50.....now, 100 is twice the wind speed, but its FOUR times the force.....120, God help us all, is 4 times 30, but SIXTEEN times the force....

I was in a 3,000 square foot four bedroom house when Marilyn hit STT.......the sliding glass doors didnt brek, they just bent till they popped out of the tracks.The hurricane was now inside.

Five minutes later there was NOTHING left of that house but the concrete slab and three people and a dog ( now , outside in the hurricane) saying "oh dear me".

We crawled on our bellies to the undergound utility room......standing up was out of the question.......... and watched the rest of the storm from there.

What does the eyewall of a Cat 3 hurricane look like? At 11:35 at night?

Well, call up George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Tell them you want a one hour movie of the "Dawn of Creation".
Money is no object.

Answer 5

It's like what Anthony said, and if you live in a surge prone area, it's like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZPcznJkFAk

And that's just a tiny example. Oh, and being a lifelong Gulf Coast resident, and having been through my share of them, I can tell you they don't have a lot of lightening in them - some, just not what you might think. It's a combo of pounding (painfully pounding) rain, driving wind, tornadoes and storm surge.

Answer 6

A couple of hundred mini tornados traveling in a circle at over 70 miles and hour. When a hurricane stalls over land you can expect wind gusts and micro bursts for hours on end. And, if the hurricane pushes water in front of it you can expect water up the wazzoo. In short, you can expect a hurricane to raise cane in one hell of a hurry.

Answer 7

a tornado with a lot of water added in, in some places it rains fish!

Answer 8

hurricanes occur with violent storms along with rain