Transcript: Lesson 2: Hurricanes and Storms
Hello. In the last video, we learned about droughts, which means there's a long period of time with little or no rain,
and a water shortage that can be the result of this. In this video, we're going to look at the opposite -- when there's
too much water. We're going to look at how climate change impacts hurricanes and storms, by giving them more
power and more water.
WHAT IS A HURRICANE?
A hurricane is an extremely large, powerful storm with very strong winds that occurs especially in the western part
of the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricanes can be very destructive because they have winds that are at least 119 kilometers
per hour, and there's so much water coming down from the sky and coming on land from the ocean. That flooding
is a serious danger.
H O W D O E S C L IM A T E C H A N G E I M P A C T H U R R I C A N E S A N D
STORMS?
Climate change does not create hurricanes, but it does impact them. How does it do that? In short, it gives the
storm more power and more water. You see, hurricanes get power from the evaporation of water.
Evaporation, the process of turning liquid into gas, moves heat from the ocean into the atmosphere. And that
process changes the heat into wind. And as the water gets warmer, it evaporates faster. So, as the ocean
temperatures get hotter, the water evaporates faster, which increases stronger winds.
Winds that are 119 kilometers per hour or greater can cause a great deal of damage. Since the oceans take in
nearly all, about 93 percent of the extra energy created by global warming, hurricanes will continue to grow
stronger as long as global warming continues. Climate change also plays a role in how much water floods onto the
land from the ocean during a hurricane.
Each day, the sea-level changes from what is called the tide; the tide is the regular upward and downward
movement of the level of the ocean that is caused by the pull of the Sun and the Moon on the Earth.
© 2021 by FHI 360. “Transcript: Lesson 2: Hurricanes and Storms” for the Online Professional English
Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government
and administered by FHI 360. This work is an adaptation of “Video: Hurricanes and Storms”, by The 1
University of Pennsylvania licensed under the Creative Commons Share-Alike License. To view a copy of the
license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
The gentle sight and sound of the tide at the beach is very relaxing, but it can be scary if there's too much water
coming on land. Hurricanes can create a storm surge, which is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm
over and above the tide.
The storm surge occurs because the strong circular wind, wind that blows in a circle, spins the water deeper and
deeper into the ocean. As the hurricane gets closer to shore, the ocean floor becomes shallower. The force of the
spinning water can't go down any further, but it has to go somewhere. So, it is forced back up and follows the path
of the storm to land.
As climate change causes more rising sea levels, these storm surges will have even higher starting points, which
means they will already be very high and can, therefore, surge further into the land with the storm.
The rising temperatures in climate change also increase the amount of rain that falls during hurricanes and other
storms. Warm air holds more water than cold air; this can increase the amount of water that is carried in the
storm. When this water is brought on land, it can then raise the water levels of rivers and bays near the coast. If a
storm builds a great amount of size and power in the ocean, it can cause damage to a large area on land.
SUMMARY
In this video, we discussed how climate change impacts hurricanes and other storms by giving them more power
and more water.
WHAT'S NEXT?
In the next video, we are going to help you become a more powerful reader by giving you strategies to read more
closely for details.
I M A G E C R E D IT :
1. Hurricane: Image by David Mark from Pixabay under Pixabay license.
2. Tides: This image is a derivative of Bay_of_Fundy_High_Tide.jpg and Bay_of_Fundy_Low_Tide.jpg by
Samuel Wantman via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY SA. This derivative is licensed CC BY SA 3.0 by FHI
360 for the Online Professional English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with
funding provided by the United States government and administered by FHI 360.
