Eleanor Rhodes 03-8-25
Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________
Student Exploration: Hurricane Motion
Vocabulary: air pressure, Coriolis effect, eye, hurricane, knot, meteorologist, precipitation
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
A hurricane is a large, rotating tropical storm with wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour.
Since 1990, meteorologists have regularly used satellite images to track hurricanes.
1. The satellite image at right shows Hurricane Katrina
just before it hit New Orleans in 2005.
2. How do you think meteorologists predicted the
arrival of a hurricane before the 1990s?
When ocean tides become wild and
everything becomes windy and stormy/ they
would have people fly into the hurricane.
Gizmo Warm-up
You can use data collected from weather stations to study the characteristics of hurricanes. The
Hurricane Motion Gizmo has three simulated weather stations. Turn on Show weather station
data. Make sure Wind, Cloud cover, and Pressure are all checked.
The tails on each station symbol point in the direction the wind is coming
from. The flags on the tail indicate wind speed, measured in knots. (One knot
is equal to 1.15 mph.) A short line extending from the tail indicates 5 knots of
wind. A longer line indicates 10 knots. A triangular flag indicates 50 knots.
Add all the flags together to get the wind speed.
The number in the station’s upper right is the air pressure, which is measured in millibars (mb).
The circle symbol
indicates the
percentage of cloud
cover, as shown in
the table at right.
Use the information above to complete this table for station A on the Gizmo.
Wind speed (knots) Wind from Cloud cover Pressure (mb)
30 north 1/8 1023.5
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Activity A: Get the Gizmo ready:
Hurricane • Make sure Practice, Show hurricane, and Show
characteristics weather station data are selected.
Introduction: Hurricanes form when an area of low pressure forms over warm water. Winds
blow toward the low pressure, but are deflected by Earth’s rotation. The Coriolis effect causes
winds to curve to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern
Hemisphere. This results in a counterclockwise rotation for Northern Hemisphere hurricanes
and a clockwise rotation for Southern Hemisphere hurricanes.
Question: What are some characteristics of hurricanes?
1. Observe: In which hemisphere is the hurricane shown on the Gizmo? How do you know?
It is coming form the North hemisphere because of the way it is rotating
(counterclockwise)
2. Describe patterns: Under Show hurricane, make sure Radar is selected. Radar is used to
determine where precipitation, such as rain, is falling. Blue indicates light rainfall. Heavier
rain is shown with yellow and then orange. Red indicates the heaviest rainfall.
Along the outside
A. Where within the hurricane is the lightest rainfall? ___________________________
The MIDDlLE
B. Where within the hurricane is the heaviest rainfall? __________________________
C. Describe any patterns you see in the distribution of a hurricane’s rain.
The closer to the middle of the hurricane, the heavier the rainfall
3. Observe: Under Show hurricane, select Satellite. Satellite images are taken from cameras
built into satellites orbiting Earth. These images are used to study cloud coverage over large
areas, including the clouds associated with a hurricane.
Area of rainfall
A. Which is larger, the area of rainfall or the area of cloud cover? __________________
Closer to the middle
B. Where is the cloud cover most dense? ____________________________________
Outside the hurricane
C. Where is the cloud cover least dense? ____________________________________
4. Identify: The center of rotation
of a hurricane is called the eye.
The eye of a hurricane is a
core of warm, relatively calm
air with low pressure and light
winds.
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Activity A (continued from previous page)
5. Classify: Hurricanes are categorized based on Category Wind speed (mph)
their wind speeds. The chart at right shows the 1 74-95 mph
five categories used to classify hurricanes.
2 96-110 mph
Move the hurricane so that the center of the 3 111-130 mph
storm is almost directly over a weather station. 4 131-155 mph
Adjust the hurricane’s position until the wind
speed is maximized. 5 greater than 155 mph
1.151
A. What is the top wind speed, in knots? _____________________________________
B. Remember one knot is equal to 1.15 miles per hour. What is the hurricane’s highest
less than 1.55
wind speed in miles per hour? ___________________________________________
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C. What category is this hurricane? _________________________________________
6. Observe: Move the hurricane towards another weather station. As you do this, observe the
cloud cover, wind speed, and air pressure at the station.
cloud clover gets thicker
A. How does the cloud cover change? _______________________________________
speed increases
B. How does the wind speed change? _______________________________________
air pressure drops
C. How does the air pressure change? ______________________________________
7. Collect data: Move a hurricane north, east, south, and west of a weather station. In the table
below, record the wind direction in each case.
Wind direction at weather
Hurricane position in relation to weather station
station
North west
East north
South east
West south
8. Analyze: How can you tell the location of the hurricane relative to a weather station based
on this information?
The way the wind blows indicates what direction the hurricane is coming from. If
the wind clows from the north the hurricane is coming from the west.
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Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:
Predict hurricanes • Select Experiment and click Pause ( ).
Question: How can you predict the location and path of a hurricane?
1. Observe: Click Play ( ), and wait until you see a hurricane approaching one of the weather
stations. Click Pause. What changes indicate a hurricane is approaching?
increases decreases
Cloud cover: _________________________ Air pressure: _________________________
increases
Wind speed: _________________________
2. Observe: Click Play, and wait for the hurricane to go over the land. What happens in the
hours after landfall? The wind increases, air pressure decreases, heavy rain
3. Collect data: Click Reset ( ). Turn off Show hurricane. Click Play. When the simulation
reads Day 1, 3:00 PM, click Pause and record the data from each weather station.
Station Wind speed (knots) Wind from Cloud cover Pressure (mb)
A 10 N clear 1046.2
B 10 NE clear 1042
C 25 NE cloudy 1026.5
4. Interpret: Using the readings above, do you think a hurricane is nearby? Explain.
No becausse the air pressur is not significantly low and the sky is mostly clear
and the wind speed is low
5. Run Gizmo: Allow the Gizmo to run until the weather station data indicates a hurricane is
nearby and will soon make landfall. Click Pause.
A. What weather station data indicated a hurricane would soon make landfall?
Weather station C
___________________________________________________________________
B. Turn on Show hurricane. Was your prediction correct? Explain.
Yes, because the pressure was low and it was cloudy and the wind was
starting to pick up at weather station C
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Activity B (continued from previous page)
6. Gather data: Turn off Show hurricane, and click Reset. Click Play. At 12:00 P.M. of day 1,
click Pause. From the Tools menu, drag a pointer to the predicted position of the eye of the
hurricane. Turn on Show hurricane, and mark an arrow where the actual eye is located.
Repeat this procedure every 12 hours, for 4 days, to mark the predicted and actual path of
the hurricane. Describe how your predictions compared to the actual outcomes.
7. Make connections: As warm, moist air rises, water vapor in the air condenses and releases
a great deal of heat energy. This energy powers a hurricane. How does this information
explain what happens to hurricanes after they make landfall?
After the hurricanes made landfall they get stronger and stay longer in warmer
areas as war, air rises, which explains why arm, humid, coastal areas experience
mpre huricanes.
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