|
Hurricane season breaks record
25/11/2005 07:44 - (SA)
Washington - This year's Atlantic hurricane season, which officially comes to an end on November 30, claimed over a thousand lives, made one million people homeless and caused an unprecedented level of damage.
Weather forecasters say 2005 was an exceptionally active year. Never before have they had to name so many tropical cyclones during the annual season, which begins June 1.
Other records were also smashed. Hurricane Wilma was the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and Katrina the most destructive.
Hurricane Vince also set a precedent, developing further north an east than is usual and becoming the first hurricane to make landfall on the Iberian peninsula since records began in 1851.
Meteorologists had long predicted that this year would be very unusual. In an update on weather conditions at the beginning of August the United States weather authority, the NOAA, said it expected a "very active" season.
Over 6 000 missing
But as it turned out events far outweighed expectations and 13 hurricanes formed over the Atlantic.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami Florida classified seven of them as the more serious Category 3, 4 or 5 storms with wind speeds over 178km/h.
In comparison, during an average season there are usually six hurricanes of which only two will reach any significant strength.
The arrival of Hurricane Katrina on the coasts of the states of Louisiana and Mississippi in August marked a catastrophic point in the season for millions of people in the region.
Authorities there say 1 322 people were killed by the storm and 6 644 are still missing. More than a million people have no homes to return to.
Over 80% of the city of New Orleans was submerged under water and tens of thousands of people were left for days to fend for themselves before aid arrived.
The authorities' inability to cope with the hurricane's after effects itself caused a storm of criticism in the US.
According to the New Orleans authorities just 60 000 of the former half million residents have returned to the city.
Three months after Katrina struck the extent of the damage caused has still not yet become fully apparent.
Insurance companies calculate a bill in damages of at least $125bn.
Katrina caused more destruction than the following 12 hurricanes put together.
Because Katrina caused so much destruction its name has been struck from the list of future storm identifiers.
But despite the enormous damage it left behind Katrina was only the third most powerful hurricane of the season.
In October Hurricane Wilma caused serious damage to parts of Mexico and Florida and has gone down as the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.
Air pressure in the eye of the storm was the lowest on record and measured 882 millibars.
One effect of the human and physical damage of the storms has been to spark a debate in the US about global warming.
On the other hand the US weather authorities say it is "very unlikely" that global warming has contributed to the number and intensity of hurricanes this season or will do so in the future.
Weather experts at the NOAA believe the problem has more to do with a cyclical change between active and quiet phases that could take decades to complete.
Next year could be very stormy because the experts say the active phase began in 1995 and could last for 25 years.
|
News
