When hurricanes threaten land, we talk about a few different threats they bring:
- heavy rainfall (leading to flooding)
- strong wind (strong enough to do significant damage)
- storm surge
- tornadoes
This lesson discusses what storm surge is and how it's different than rainfall in a hurricane using Tropical Storm Ian from 2022 as an example.
Meteorologist Hannah Strong shows us what storm surge is and how it can cause so much damage
Tropical systems push water with them; this is what we call storm surge. Think about putting your hand in the sand and pushing it to the side. The wind in a tropical system does something similar with the ocean water around it. It pushes water with it as it moves so this water is pushed onshore when a tropical system makes landfall. Just a few feet of storm surge can put water in peoples' homes.
DISCUSSION IDEAS:
Which threat in hurricanes sounds most dangerous?
Does storm surge change based on ground surfaces? Sand, dirt, asphalt?
