Why does a hurricane rarely sustain the wind speeds it sustained over water, eve

Question

Why does a hurricane rarely sustain the wind speeds it sustained over water, even a few miles inland? What happens to such winds as they move from being over the ocean, to over land? Why might the winds be more difficult to stand in just a few blocks inland, compared to the beach? Why does a hurricane rarely sustain the wind speeds it sustained over water, even a few miles inland? What happens to such winds as they move from being over the ocean, to over land? Why might the winds be more difficult to stand in just a few blocks inland, compared to the beach?

Explanation / Answer

Hurricanes are spiralling tropical disturbances with winds of nearly 74miles per hour. They begin as tropical disturbances in warm ocean waters with surface temperatures of around 26-27 and draw their energy from the warm waters and humid air over the tropical oceans. They lose their strength as they move away from the warm ocean water inwards towards the land. The wind speeds decrease inland due to the frictional differences between the water and land with the free atmosphere. Thus, inland regions are relatively safe from receiving strong winds.

As a hurricane moves from the warm ocean waters towards the land, the storm's center crosses the coastline resulting in landfall. The storm deprives itself of the warm water from where it was drawing its energy thus losing its strength quickly. Landfall increases the shear force of the hurricane strength winds causing devastating storm surges, torrential rainfall causing heavy floods, landslides and severe weather conditions. It can even blow vehicles off the roads.

The winds are more difficult to stand in just a few blocks inland compared to the beach because near the beach the hurricanes mostly remains over the warm ocean waters where the impact is more so the wind speeds is greater over the oceans or seas as compared to the beach but once it moves inwards towards the land, it may result in landfall with strong winds causing widespread destruction.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.