Greenbook: A Local Guide to Chesapeake Living - Issue 8 | Page 43

Photo of downtown Annapolis after Hurricane Isabel
(2003) by Jessica Pachler.

UNDERSTANDING THE
TERMINOLOGY
A tropical cyclone is
a rotating, organized
system of clouds and
thunderstorms that
originates over tropical
or subtropical waters
and has a closed
low-level circulation
Tropical cyclones rotate
counterclockwise in the
Northern Hemisphere.
Tropical Depression
A tropical cyclone with
maximum sustained
winds of 38 mph (33
knots) or less.
Tropical Storm
A tropical cyclone with
maximum sustained
winds of 39 to 73 mph (34
to 63 knots).
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone with
maximum sustained
winds of 74 mph (64
knots) or higher.
In the western North
Pacific, hurricanes
are called typhoons;
similar storms in the
Indian Ocean and South
Pacific Ocean are called
cyclones.
Major Hurricane
A tropical cyclone with
maximum sustained
winds of 111 mph
(96 knots) or higher,
corresponding to a
Category 3, 4 or 5 on the
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane
Wind Scale.
A Post-Tropical Cyclone
is a system that no longer
possesses sufficient
tropical characteristics
to be considered a
tropical cyclone. Posttropical cyclones can
still bring heavy rain and
high winds.

R

ecent reports by The Weather
Company and other media outlets forecast that the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season will be the most
active since 2012. Weather experts predict that 14 named storms, eight hurricanes and three major hurricanes could
make landfall in the coming season.
The official hurricane season in our
area is 1st June to 30th November.
Scientists cannot accurately predict
if a hurricane will in fact hit Annapolis
or Anne Arundel County. For example,
the 2010 hurricane season was forecasted to be active. That year, nineteen
named storms and twelve hurricanes
formed in the Atlantic basin; however,
not a single hurricane and only one
tropical storm made landfall in the
United States.
On the other hand, the 1992 hurricane season produced only six named
storms and one subtropical storm. But
one of those storms was Hurricane An-

drew, which devastated South Florida
as a Category 5 weather event.
When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in 2012, the pattern and strength of
the storm was unpredictable. When it
made landfall in Cuba as a Category 3
storm, weakened in strength to a Category 1 storm as it moved across the
Caribbean, and weakened further, albeit briefly to a Tropical Storm off the
Coast of North America. Suddenly, that
storm grew in ferocity, making a left
turn toward the East Coast of the United States. Winds spanned a distance of
1,100 miles and devastation stretched
from Maine to Florida and as far inland
as the Appalachians, Michigan and
Wisconsin. Damage estimates from
Sandy top out at $75 billion. 233 people
were killed over the course of the storm.
There are few things in life we absolutely cannot control, and weather is
one of them. But what you CAN and
SHOULD do is be prepared.
GREENBOOK | SUMMER 2016

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