Gary Crossen, Age 11, of West Roxbury, Mass., for his question:
Why are most hurricanes in August?
Hurricane, Flora ripped through the Caribbean with murderous rage. As a rule, its name would be repeated on the list of hurricanes to appear four years later. But the name of a devastating hurricane is dropped for ten years. There will be no west Indian hurricane named Flora until 1973.
The Caribbean was lashed by the hurricane Flora in October. The records of 40 Years show that September is the month when the most hurricanes hatch around the West Indies. The average number in September is 66 and the August average is 51. The Season begins in June., with an average of ten hurricanes. The average drops to 35 in October and six in November.
A hurricane is shaped like a monster doughnut with raging winds spiraling into a Calm eye of light, rising air. We can spot it, almost at birth, track it axe. Predict its path. But we still are not surf what fierce forces of nature create it.
One theory blames the hurricane upon the tricky trade winds that blow towards the equator. The northeast arid. Southeast trades slant towards each other and blow into a belt of light, rising air. This is the calm belt called the doldrums. With the seasons, it shifts north and south.
In summer, the doldrurn belt moves north. The Southeast trades follow it and sometimes trespass across the equator. This is when our hurricane season begins. Trouble may start when a pocket of light air is trapped between the converging winds. Heavier air blows into the light pocket, perhaps drawing along the slanting trade winds.
The spinning earth could add a twist to the converging winds and set them spiraling around the center of light, rising air. This windy event may well be the cause of a howling hurricane.
It is most likely to occur in September, when the doldrums are farthest north, beckoning the trade winds from south of the equator. And this is when most of our hurricanes are born. In February, the doldrums are farthest south arid sometimes the northeast trades cross the equator. This is when most hurricanes are hatched in the Southern Hemisphere.
Hurricanes are brewed near, but never on the equator. When the slanting trade winds meet and tangle, they create the Intertropic Zone of Convergence, known as the ITC. This zone is the breeding place of hurricanes. Through the year, the doldrums carry the ITC north and south of the equator and with it goes the hurricane season.