Why is it Isaac's Storm?

You are now past the halfway point in our book, Isaac's Storm.  The author has been very clear about how American meteorologists discounted the hard-won knowledge of the Cubans, the mismanagement and mischief that went on in the early Weather Service, and how all signs and information pointed towards a hurricane of great strength barreling towards Galveston, TX.

The author has been somewhat less clear on why he calls the great Galveston hurricane "Isaac's Storm."  Explain, in a well-written and thoroughly proofread paragraph, why you think the author gave 'ownership' of this historic hurricane to Isaac Cline.

The Blizzard of 1888

        The blizzard of 1888, also known as “The Great White Hurricane,”  ranged from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine in March 11-14.  To this date it has been by far the biggest blizzard in United States history! The blizzard began as heavy rainfall but turned to snow when the temperature dropped to zero when a cold front from the north west descended upon the area. It caused up to 50 inches of snow in some areas with gusts of wind up to 80 miles per hour! Causing snow drifts of up to 50 ft high that can easily buried trains and many buildings. Leading to over 400 deaths with an additional 100 deaths of people at sea trapped or their ships sunk with frozen harbors. The snow resulted in New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Maryland being isolated for over a week and many telephone lines down. Causing over 25 million dollars in damage over a billion dollars in todays money. As a result, of this storm New York and many other states Began burying their telephone lines and the creation of the first subway 9 years later in Massachusetts.   

Father Benito Vines

Father Benito Vines or better known as Father Hurricane was the first to really make progress on hurricane monitoring and hurricane prediction. Fr. Benito Vines made sure that all the discoveries he made went to benefit Cuba where he made the biggest impact. Fr. Benito Vines went to Cuba with the sole purpose to save lives by predicting hurricanes and being able to warn people earlier. Along with that Fr. Benito Vines started what we today use as the emergency warning system for hurricanes. Fr. Benito Vines was always regarded as the best and most accurate forecaster ever and whenever he was challenged he made sure to prove them wrong by predicting the next biggest storm. Fr. Benito Vines was not only a hero but the reason why today we can predict hurricanes so well.

Edward Lorenz Chaos Theory

Edward Lorenz Was a meteorologist and a mathematician who loved to study the weather. He was the first true experimenter of chaos and tried to explain why it was so hard to make good weather forecasts. This would unleash a scientific revolution called chaos theory. There are two main components of the chaos theory, no matter how complex they may be rely upon an underlying order, and that very simple or small systems and events can cause very complex and unexpected behaviors or events. This idea is known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Lorenz discoveries shocked the scientific world and in all of its fields. We learn that the heartbeat is chaotic, the stock market, the solar system, and of course the weather.

Hurricane Andrew

Hurricane Andrew was first formed on August 22,1992 in the Atlantic Ocean and headed towards the southern part of Florida.It made land fall in Elliot Key, a regatta to the east of Florida, as a Category 5 Hurricane. Then it went on to southern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. After it hit Elliot Key and southern Florida, Andrew went through the Gulf of Mexico and finally hit Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane. The damage in Elliot Key was worth 25$ billion and the hurricane caused 26 direct deaths and 39 indirect deaths. Hurricane Andrew destroyed 49,000 homes and damaged 108,000 homes. 

Movie Summary

As we watched this movie about the sun, I realized that while the sun is a main source of life on Earth, it can also be a huge threat to our survival. The sun frequently emits CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections), which are magnetic solar flares that contain at least 25,000,000 J of energy. These flares can be as large as a third of the sun; big enough to surround the whole Earth. Scientists say that if one flare makes direct contact with the Earth, it would cause an apocalyptic crisis. It will burn out and shut down 99.9% of all Earth's energy and electricity. Without any electricity or energy, there will be no power, no water or food, no gas, and no transportation. Without these everyday necessities and appliances, the human population will perish quickly.

Another thing I found interesting about this movie was how magnetism plays a huge role in both the Earth and the Sun. The earth has what is called a magnetosphere, which protects the Earth from the magnetic solar flares that come its way. However, if too many flares hit the magnetic field, it will cause the polarity of the magnetosphere to reverse direction and eventually disappear.

Magnetic solar flares

      The video from the History Channel was about solar flares and how they could affect earth if they penetrate our magnetic shield. Solar flares are massive surges of electrically charged plasma that has shot off of the sun into space. But, not to often the earth has a direct hit from a solar flare. Our first line of defence is our magnetic shield. Our magnetic shield grabs the electrocharged plasma and reflects it around the earth or some is pulled towards the north and south poles. This can been seen as the northern lights or auroras. These auroras are caused when the electrocharged plasma from the sun interacts with the earths atmosphere and magnetic shield and causes the atmosphere to glow. But, if we did not have our magnetic field, the solar flares would cause a magnetic apocalypse. Where the electrocharged plasma would destroy the world’s electric circuit. As a result, there would be no communication, gas, food, or water. It can cause many deaths up to half of earths population. Another way that this can be a reality is if the earth’s magnetic shield flips and during the flip we could have no protection from the sun’s flares. On the bright side, N.A.S.A has launched a new satellite, S.D.O. that watches the sun’s activities and is equipped to take readingings of space weather. So we can be better prepared for solar flares if not predict space weather. 

Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976

On July 31, 1976, a huge flood rushed through the Big Thompson Canyon and River in Denver, Colorado. There were a total of 144 deaths, many homes lost, and most of the US-34 in that alley destroyed and washed away. This flood was formed over the course of the day by  warm easterly winds being pushed up towards the peak of the canyon, and the rain clouds formed from these winds and water vapor moved at less than 20 mph, causing these clouds to pour torrential rain over the area for several hours.

SBP Metereology

Gabriel Fahrenheit was an physicist, engineer, glass blower. He was a very intelligent person. He develop the Fahrenheit scale by three fixed points first one was 0 F, second was 32 F, and third was 96 F. I learn a lot about him, I'm glad I search information about him.

Super storm March 1993

Super storm 1993 was , in my perspective demonic . It killed 300 people and had different other storms to form from it. Because of the storm Orlando, Fl was 33°F at that time which is pretty odd from our knowledge. One thing that we can be relieved about is that we haven't seen a storm that bad. I pray that we never do. This storm will never be forgotten.

Neutron radiation

Neutron radiation is a kind of ionizing radiation which consists of free neutrons. A result of nuclear fusion, it consists of the release of free neutrons from atoms, and these free neutrons react with nuclei of other atoms to form new isotopes, which, in turn, may produce radiation. Neutrons may be emitted from nuclear fusion or fission  or from any number of different nuclear reaction such as from radioactive decay or reactions from particle interactions. Large neutron sources are rare, and are usually limited to large sized devices like nuclear reactors. Health physics neutron radiation is considered a fourth radiation hazard alongside the other types of radiation. Another, sometimes more severe hazard of neutron radiation, So it is harmful for us. The radiation affects our skin and muscle tissue.

The EF-5 Tornado of Moore Oklahoma in 2013

On May 20th, 2013 an EF-5 tornado ran through a swath of Moore Oklahoma. This was a disastrous and devastating tornado for the small town. It took away the lives of 24 people and out of those people were seven children. The tornado was on the highest category of the Fujita scale, which measures wind speeds, with winds that ranged from 200 mph and up. It wiped out schools, medical centers and homes leaving little hope for the residents of that town. Moore Oklahoma sits in what we call “tornado alley”. What happens is warm moist air from the gulf, warm dry air from the southwest, and cold air from the Rocky Mountains and Canada all come together creating perfect conditions for a thunderstorm. If the thunderstorm rotates in a circular motion it can create a mesocyclone. A mesocyclone doesn't always lead to a tornado but in Moore Oklahoma’s case it did. There was over 2 billion dollar’s worth of damage from the storm. F.E.M.A, Red Cross, and other major outlets came to help and support the residents. This tornado did cause people to think of better ways of protection to help reduce the number of deaths if a tornado was to ever hit again.