Hurricane Irma hit Florida, United States on 10 September 2017. It carried wind gusts of about 240 km\h with devastating tidal surges.
Not only Florida, hurricane Irma also hit places in the Carribean annihilating French and British colonies. This hurricane began as a tropical tidal instability in the Cape Verde islands and crossed the North Atlantic Ocean by August 30. After it crossed the North Atlantic, Hurricane Irma made its way to the Leeward islands before creating havoc in Cuba.
At its peak level, hurricane Irma carried devastating winds of about 298 Km\h. It is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the
Atlantic basin. It grew into a category 5 storm as it approached the Leeward Islands. It dropped to a category 3 storm as it passed over Cuba. Since then, it is moving forward at 9 km\h.So, is it good news that the storm is moving slowly? The answer would be no. Though it is moving slowly, it will create huge storm surges. A storm surge happens when a storm while approaching a coastline increases tide levels. This happens because of the winds which push water away from the eye of the storm into the mainland. A storm surge is the deadliest part of a storm. As a storm surge usually happens 24-48 hours before the storm approaches the mainland, people
get trapped in their homes because of massive flooding. As people get trapped and are not able to move, they become an easy target for a hurricane. Evacuations procedures slow down, supplies become endangered and emergency crews can't respond. This leads to extensive loss of life.Currently, forecasts show Irma moving along the west coast of Florida. It suspected to pass over the eastern side of the state. This is good news for some islands like the Bahamas. As it will stay and destroy cities like Orlando and Miami. Florida released a mass evacuation order along the west coast of the state as a storm surge of 3-4 meters was predicted earlier this month. On top of this, Florida will receive big waves carrying more volume of water.
Weather analysts and scientists blame global warming and emission of green house gasses for such unpredictable weather. Though we have tried to evade such kinds of extreme weather by inventing stuff like levies and weather radar, we must remember that weather is governed by nature and humans are not even close of controlling it. Instead of blaming bad fate and unpredictable nature, we must stop exploiting our home planet to evade the fury of mother nature.
