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Really stupid hurricane question

cooby Sep 01 2006 10:45 AM

And a map for those of you with no handy windows. Sorry Willets, no Boston If a hurricane gathers its moisture from the ocean, why isn't the rain salt water?

MFS62 Sep 01 2006 10:52 AM

]If a hurricane gathers its moisture from the ocean, why isn't the rain salt water? I never thought of that before, but that's a great question. I heard the storm could dump 1 foot of rain in some areas. Stay dry, everyone. Later

ScarletKnight41 Sep 01 2006 10:52 AM

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricanes#Miscellaneous]Wikipedia Explains Hurricanes and Typhoons[/url] I'll keep looking for a more specific answer to your question.

ScarletKnight41 Sep 01 2006 10:53 AM

[url=http://wgntv.trb.com/news/weather/weblog/wgnweather/archives/001928.html]Here you go cooby![/url]

cooby Sep 01 2006 10:58 AM

Somebody else wondered that once! Thanks, Scarlet :)

ScarletKnight41 Sep 01 2006 10:59 AM

You're welcome. Librarians need to know how to find answers to these kinds of questions ;)

Willets Point Sep 01 2006 10:59 AM

I believe only the water evaporates leaving the salt behind.

ScarletKnight41 Sep 01 2006 11:00 AM

Willets - is that the kind of answer you give your patrons? Off the cuff like that?

KC Sep 01 2006 11:00 AM

Take a glass bowl and fill it with 1 part salt and 10 parts water and stick it out on the deck in the sun to dry up - the salt doesn't evaporate.

cooby Sep 01 2006 11:02 AM

lol, today may not be a good day to try that experiment, but I'll keep in mind

Willets Point Sep 01 2006 11:05 AM

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Willets - is that the kind of answer you give your patrons? Off the cuff like that? Only when I'm trying to show how smart I am. I was right too, I checked the links. Hopefully Cooby is impressed, after all she is the forum hot chick.

cooby Sep 01 2006 11:08 AM

I thought Shakira was. But yes, I was impressed!

Willets Point Sep 01 2006 11:10 AM

Shakira posts here? Wow I never knew she was a Mets fan.

seawolf17 Sep 01 2006 11:13 AM

Dammit! They're on to my secret identity.

Edgy DC Sep 01 2006 11:45 AM

I din't know KC was a gentleman scientist, conducting home-based expeirments and reporting the results to his local naturalist society.

MFS62 Sep 01 2006 12:05 PM

From the Encyclopaedia Britannica. ]evaporationChange of a liquid into the gaseous state; in particular, the process by which liquid water enters the atmosphere as water vapour. Evaporation, mostly from the sea and from vegetation, replenishes the humidity of the air. It is an important part of the exchange of energy in the Earth-atmosphere system that produces atmospheric motion, and therefore weather and climate. The rate of evaporation depends on the temperature difference between the evaporating surface and the air, the relative humidity, and wind. I've bolded the parts that puzzle me. Hurricaines are high humidity air masses, sometimes with humidity of 100%. That means there is little or no difference in relative humidity between the air and the water. Based on that, the transfer of moisture from the water to the air should be neglegible. Also, the temperature difference between the tropical water and tropical air doesn't seem to be significant enough to cause much evaporation. However, another definition I saw mentioned area of exposed water and this one mentions wind. So the key might be in those terms. They didn't cover this when I was last at that Holiday Inn Express. Later

metsmarathon Sep 01 2006 01:17 PM

i'm gonna go off the cuff... (stop me if i say someting that's untrue) the low pressure system that defines a hurricane causes wind that spirals inward towards the eye. these winds get very intense - reaching 180 mph for a truly powerful storm. that draws in a lot of evaporated water. also, the hurrican covers a tremendous amount of area. it draws in dry(er) air, which, in being dragged over the warm ocean water, becomes more saturated with water, thereby feeding the storm. or the air could become super-saturated. which, would mean the water is condensing out of the air. which is rain, right? put a big storm over land and it can't soak up much more warm water, and loses a tremendous amount of fuel. that's all off the top of my head. feel free to find articles on teh web which prove me to be a crackpot spilling nonsense. but i think i'm fairly right...

KC Sep 01 2006 01:25 PM

metsmarathon