Matthew Smith #28
Mrs. Walsh and Mr. Paolina
Science 706
28 January 2018

The Skull A tropical cyclone forms over tropical or subtropical waters. According to NOAA's National Ocean Service, “A tropical cyclone is a rotating low-pressure weather system that has organized thunderstorms but no fronts (a boundary separating two air masses of different densities).” Hurricanes can be very devastating when they pass over land. Hurricanes can reach extremely high wind speeds of up to 190 miles per hour.
A hurricane is like an engine that requires warm, moist air as fuel. The first thing needed for a tropical cyclone is warm ocean water. That is why tropical cyclones usually form in tropical regions where the ocean is at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit within at least the top 50 meters below the surface. The second thing that the hurricane needs is wind. According to the NOAA/NASA SciJinks, “In the case of hurricanes that form in the Atlantic Ocean, the wind blowing westward across the Atlantic from Africa provides the necessary ingredient. As the wind passes over the ocean's …show more content…
As shown in the chart, anything between 111 miles per hour and 129 miles per hour is considered devastating, and anything above 130 miles per hour is considered catastrophic, Hurricane Matthew was category 5 hurricane. This terrible hurricane made landfall as a major hurricane and started its wrath along the coasts of southwestern Haiti, Eastern Cuba, and Western Grand Bahama Island, as a category 3 and 4 hurricane. When the Hurricane made landfall in Barbados on September 28 and ended October 9 2016. Hurricane Matthew has speeds of 165 mph, with that speed, trees can be ripped from the ground. The average speed of hurricane-force winds is 100 miles per hour, while the average of tropical storm force winds is 300 to 400 miles per hour, but hurricane Matthew was 250 miles in diameter. That is about the the distance across the state of