Explanation:
Should you be worried about hurricanes?
To find out, it is useful to know where
hurricanes have gone in the past.
The above Earth map
shows the path of every hurricane reported since 1851,
Although striking, a growing incompleteness exists in the data the further one looks back in time.
The above map graphically indicates that hurricanes -- sometimes called cyclones or typhoons depending on where they form -- usually occur over water, which makes sense since evaporating warm water
gives them energy.
The
map also shows that hurricanes never cross -- or even occur very near -- the
Earth's equator, since the Coriolis effect
goes to zero there, and hurricanes need the Coriolis force to circulate.
The Coriolis force also causes
hurricane paths to arc away from the equator.
Although incompleteness fogs long term trends and the
prevalence of hurricanes remains a topic of research,
evidence is accumulating that hurricanes are, on the average,
more common
and more powerful in the North Atlantic Ocean over the past 20 years.
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