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Look at How Hurricane Forms

Aired October 03, 2002 - 14:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We've all seen what a hurricane can do once it hits land. But how does a hurricane form?
Our own Miles O'Brien, you are good with all this stuff. He knows space, he knows hurricanes, he knows anything.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, they're not too far apart, space and hurricanes.

PHILLIPS: Really?

O'BRIEN: I'm going to bring this all together for you. Think of this a recipe for a hurricane, if you will.

But first, let's look at the finished product. It's sort of like the Galloping Gourmet. You have the finished thing that comes out first. Here's the souffle, if you will. This is shot from the Space Shuttle.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that.

O'BRIEN: Now you understand the tie. Typhoon Winnie. Notice the eye there. As you go out and around -- we're sorry these wimpy lines, but somebody was messing with my telestrator here -- counterclockwise motion.

And Kyra, have you ever spun a yo-yo around your finger?.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, I still do it in the newsroom.

O'BRIEN: As it gets closer to your finger, it does what?

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What does it do as it gets closer to your finger?

PHILLIPS: It hurts.

O'BRIEN: No, it gets faster.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And that's where the more rapid winds are in that area there. Just wanted to tell you about that.

How does a hurricane form? Let's go back to where it might form in the first place. Do you know where? PHILLIPS: No.

O'BRIEN: Africa.

PHILLIPS: Really?

O'BRIEN: Hurricanes form in Africa. This is what's interesting.

PHILLIPS: You're going to explain why, right?

O'BRIEN: There are trade winds which go across -- actually, that's the wrong direction. Let me do it one more time. Let's go that way. They're north and south of the equator. In between those trade winds are some mountains in the area.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: And in those mountains, when those trade winds mix together, they create a little wrinkle. That wrinkle goes out to the Atlantic Ocean. When it's warm -- and when I say warm, I'm talking 80 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures or better in the ocean -- can't really see that very well -- 80 right there -- when it's that warm and that little wrinkle of air gets across into the ocean, it starts to spin around in that counterclockwise motion. That's the beginnings of a hurricane. It starts out as a tropical depression, goes to a tropical storm.

Let me show you the fueling process. This is what you want to see, right?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Yet another NASA satellite once again giving you that sense of unified theory here, Kyra, bringing it together, space and hurricanes, 3-D animation, exactly how these things kind of fuel up using that warm water to send moisture up into that cloud. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and spins around -- the wind gets bigger and it heads in our direction using those trade winds we just told you about. Right?

PHILLIPS: Right.

O'BRIEN: Well, so how does it dog leg up and go up the coast as it always does?

PHILLIPS: It's a golf term.

O'BRIEN: It's a golf term: "dog leg."

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It has a slice. That's what it is.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. Now I get it.

(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Take a look at this shot from a few years ago. These storms are stacked up like airplanes at Hartsfield airport coming across. You can see them there in that area. Once again, those trade winds are sending it over this way, and as it gets to the United States, what's the big dominant weather flow that affects us? Do you know.

PHILLIPS: No.

O'BRIEN: The jet stream. The jet stream is up in here, and it's going something like this. So what happens is these things come up, they encounter the jet stream and then just go right back into the weather flow. Around and around it goes. The great circle of life.

PHILLIPS: Nobody knows.

O'BRIEN: What's interesting about all of this is the folks at the National Hurricane Center were very, very accurate at predicting the path of this hurricane. They've got that down to a science. When it came to predicting its intensity, that was a difficult thing. They didn't think it would get this big. They can't quite understand why it did, although their gut told them it might.

PHILLIPS: You have to go by gut.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: The computers, the computers told them otherwise. Then when it fell apart as it hit land, that surprised them a little bit too.

So the bottom line is there is a lot of science involved in this; there's also a little bit of black magic.

PHILLIPS: Miles O'Brien, thank you. You never cease to amaze me.

O'BRIEN: It's always a pleasure to see you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Miles.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 3, 2002 - 14:13   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We've all seen what a hurricane can do once it hits land. But how does a hurricane form?
Our own Miles O'Brien, you are good with all this stuff. He knows space, he knows hurricanes, he knows anything.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, they're not too far apart, space and hurricanes.

PHILLIPS: Really?

O'BRIEN: I'm going to bring this all together for you. Think of this a recipe for a hurricane, if you will.

But first, let's look at the finished product. It's sort of like the Galloping Gourmet. You have the finished thing that comes out first. Here's the souffle, if you will. This is shot from the Space Shuttle.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that.

O'BRIEN: Now you understand the tie. Typhoon Winnie. Notice the eye there. As you go out and around -- we're sorry these wimpy lines, but somebody was messing with my telestrator here -- counterclockwise motion.

And Kyra, have you ever spun a yo-yo around your finger?.

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, I still do it in the newsroom.

O'BRIEN: As it gets closer to your finger, it does what?

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What does it do as it gets closer to your finger?

PHILLIPS: It hurts.

O'BRIEN: No, it gets faster.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: And that's where the more rapid winds are in that area there. Just wanted to tell you about that.

How does a hurricane form? Let's go back to where it might form in the first place. Do you know where? PHILLIPS: No.

O'BRIEN: Africa.

PHILLIPS: Really?

O'BRIEN: Hurricanes form in Africa. This is what's interesting.

PHILLIPS: You're going to explain why, right?

O'BRIEN: There are trade winds which go across -- actually, that's the wrong direction. Let me do it one more time. Let's go that way. They're north and south of the equator. In between those trade winds are some mountains in the area.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: And in those mountains, when those trade winds mix together, they create a little wrinkle. That wrinkle goes out to the Atlantic Ocean. When it's warm -- and when I say warm, I'm talking 80 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures or better in the ocean -- can't really see that very well -- 80 right there -- when it's that warm and that little wrinkle of air gets across into the ocean, it starts to spin around in that counterclockwise motion. That's the beginnings of a hurricane. It starts out as a tropical depression, goes to a tropical storm.

Let me show you the fueling process. This is what you want to see, right?

PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Yet another NASA satellite once again giving you that sense of unified theory here, Kyra, bringing it together, space and hurricanes, 3-D animation, exactly how these things kind of fuel up using that warm water to send moisture up into that cloud. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and spins around -- the wind gets bigger and it heads in our direction using those trade winds we just told you about. Right?

PHILLIPS: Right.

O'BRIEN: Well, so how does it dog leg up and go up the coast as it always does?

PHILLIPS: It's a golf term.

O'BRIEN: It's a golf term: "dog leg."

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It has a slice. That's what it is.

PHILLIPS: Thank you. Now I get it.

(CROSSTALK) O'BRIEN: Take a look at this shot from a few years ago. These storms are stacked up like airplanes at Hartsfield airport coming across. You can see them there in that area. Once again, those trade winds are sending it over this way, and as it gets to the United States, what's the big dominant weather flow that affects us? Do you know.

PHILLIPS: No.

O'BRIEN: The jet stream. The jet stream is up in here, and it's going something like this. So what happens is these things come up, they encounter the jet stream and then just go right back into the weather flow. Around and around it goes. The great circle of life.

PHILLIPS: Nobody knows.

O'BRIEN: What's interesting about all of this is the folks at the National Hurricane Center were very, very accurate at predicting the path of this hurricane. They've got that down to a science. When it came to predicting its intensity, that was a difficult thing. They didn't think it would get this big. They can't quite understand why it did, although their gut told them it might.

PHILLIPS: You have to go by gut.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: The computers, the computers told them otherwise. Then when it fell apart as it hit land, that surprised them a little bit too.

So the bottom line is there is a lot of science involved in this; there's also a little bit of black magic.

PHILLIPS: Miles O'Brien, thank you. You never cease to amaze me.

O'BRIEN: It's always a pleasure to see you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Miles.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com