Weather Whys; Storm Surge

This is weather-wise. It may come as a surprise to learn that most often, the greatest danger from a hurricane isn't the wind, it's the water. The storm surge of abnormally high tides and wind-blown waves can batter the sturdiest structure in its path. The surge comes about as a result of the extremely low pressure at the center of the storm. Imagine a glass of lemonade with a straw in it. If you suck on the straw just a little, you're removing air from it and creating a small area of low pressure inside. The lemonade rises up in the straw as a result. Similarly, the ocean surface under the strongest part of a hurricane will be several feet or even several meters higher than normal because of the low pressure at the center. The high winds of a hurricane can make the storm surge even more dangerous. That's because hurricane force winds blowing towards the shore can bring still more water with them, making the storm surge greater.

But fortunately, that only happens on one side of the storm. Since the winds of a hurricane spiral counterclockwise, it means that upon landfall, areas to the right of the eye will experience winds coming off the water while areas to the left will have strong winds blowing back out to sea. So viewing it from off shore, cities on the right side of the hurricane will experience the increased storm surge. But it's good news for the towns to the left. The strong winds blowing from the shore will help decrease the effects of the storm surge for them. Otherwise is produced with the assistance of the National Weather Service Forecast Office and the National Severe Storms Laboratory, both in Norman, Oklahoma. And the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, the Oklahoma Climate Elogical Survey, and the School of Meteorology, all at the University of Oklahoma. For weather-wise, I'm Drew Barlow.