How much water is contained in one hurricane

A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs above the surface of the ocean when warm, humid air comes in contact with large, cold atmospheric masses. As a result of this, a real water factory is born, pouring simply enchanting streams of moisture onto the earth. But how much water does hurricanes bring on average? Climatologists also thought about this issue and decided to calculate.

So, according to meteorologist Ryan Mohe, a strong cyclone can carry 15-17 trillion liters of rain. To make it easier for you to imagine, let’s say more clearly: such a volume of water is 4 times the contents of all the Great Lakes, and it would be enough to fill 26 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

We all saw what stormy streams flow through the city streets after a good downpour. As a rule, with such rain, the layer of precipitation does not exceed 40 millimeters. Now imagine that this figure is 1 or 2 meters. The situation will look something like this:

By the way, there are examples of much more “generous” disasters, when after hurricanes the water layer in places reached 5 meters. This is exactly the situation in Texas and Louisiana. Harvey, a raging hurricane, brought down about 57 trillion liters of rain in the United States.

The rainfall during the Florence hurricane, the devastating consequences of which we can now observe in North and South Carolina, can be clearly seen in the video below:

Watch the video: How Much Does A Hurricane Weigh? Krulwich Wonders. NPR (May 2024).