• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Florida Gov. Declares State Of Emergency Over Hurricane Irma (Up: clean-up begins)

SomTervo

Member
Hmm... OK.. I still don't really understand. So the water from the bahamas for example is sucked up into the hurricane which makes it stronger and then that excess water then starts to rain down as the hurricane moves and that causes the 'storm surge' we keep hearing about? ''''

Inaccurate layman terms:

- the ocean is only flat because of roughly equal and high air pressure across its surface. (There's lots of air in the atmosphere and it's pressing up against everything)
- imagine we lowered the earth's air pressure by pumping all of the air away into space - what would happen? The ocean would rise up because no air is pushing it down
- in a big hurricane situation, the hurricane's wind power spinning air around a calm "eye" means that the air is pumped "away" from the eye.
- the air pressure gets low at the eye, meaning the ocean doesn't have air pressing it down, so it rises up. Only at the eye. It's literally just a hump like a hill of water
- this hurricane is so big the eye-swell is huge and water is dragged in from other places eg land
 
Here in Doral, it's not too bad, but it's definitely been picking up during the last couple of hours. We had a tree fall last night in that crushed someone's car, and another one broke or fell earlier today. Seems like most of the rest of the city is getting it worse than us. But it's still pretty strong now.
 
LN60tOT.jpg
In Georgia. Thanks, Irma. You fucking cunt.
 

gwarm01

Member
Inaccurate layman terms:

- the ocean is only flat because of roughly equal and high air pressure across its surface. (There's lots of air in the atmosphere and it's pressing up against everything)
- imagine we lowered the earth's air pressure by pumping all of the air away into space - what would happen? The ocean would rise up because no air is pushing it down
- in a big hurricane situation, the hurricane's wind power spinning air around a calm "eye" means that the air is pumped "away" from the eye.
- the air pressure gets low at the eye, meaning the ocean doesn't have air pressing it down, so it rises up. Only at the eye. It's literally just a hump like a hill of water
- this hurricane is so big the eye-swell is huge and water is dragged in from other places eg land

Aka the hurricane is a vacuum cleaner and its sucking up the water.
 

pxleyes

Banned
Inaccurate layman terms:

- the ocean is only flat because of roughly equal and high air pressure across its surface. (There's lots of air in the atmosphere and it's pressing up against everything)
- imagine we lowered the earth's air pressure by pumping all of the air away into space - what would happen? The ocean would rise up because no air is pushing it down
- in a big hurricane situation, the hurricane's wind power spinning air around a calm "eye" means that the air is pumped "away" from the eye.
- the air pressure gets low at the eye, meaning the ocean doesn't have air pressing it down, so it rises up. Only at the eye. It's literally just a hump like a hill of water
- this hurricane is so big the eye-swell is huge and water is dragged in from other places eg land
Great explanation. Lived in Florida all my 32 years and the concept still amazes me. Humans generally think on a scale of, well, a human, and it really it hard to grasp these bigger systems.
 
Inaccurate layman terms:

- the ocean is only flat because of roughly equal and high air pressure across its surface. (There's lots of air in the atmosphere and it's pressing up against everything)
- imagine we lowered the earth's air pressure by pumping all of the air away into space - what would happen? The ocean would rise up because no air is pushing it down
- in a big hurricane situation, the hurricane's wind power spinning air around a calm "eye" means that the air is pumped "away" from the eye.
- the air pressure gets low at the eye, meaning the ocean doesn't have air pressing it down, so it rises up. Only at the eye. It's literally just a hump like a hill of water
- this hurricane is so big the eye-swell is huge and water is dragged in from other places eg land

Also keep in mind:

A lot of the areas that are now "dry" are not very deep, so there's not a lot of force needed to pull away a foot or two of water.
 

GamerSoul

Member
Inaccurate layman terms:

- the ocean is only flat because of roughly equal and high air pressure across its surface. (There's lots of air in the atmosphere and it's pressing up against everything)
- imagine we lowered the earth's air pressure by pumping all of the air away into space - what would happen? The ocean would rise up because no air is pushing it down
- in a big hurricane situation, the hurricane's wind power spinning air around a calm "eye" means that the air is pumped "away" from the eye.
- the air pressure gets low at the eye, meaning the ocean doesn't have air pressing it down, so it rises up. Only at the eye. It's literally just a hump like a hill of water
- this hurricane is so big the eye-swell is huge and water is dragged in from other places eg land

shhit. very interesting. thanks for the explanation.
 

sflufan

Banned
Miami radar indicates a significant degree of shearing on the western side of the storm. It's effectively "half" a storm now with practcally all rain concentrated on the eastern side.
 

III-V

Member
Also keep in mind:

A lot of the areas that are now "dry" are not very deep, so there's not a lot of force needed to pull away a foot or two of water.

Bayshore boulevard is about 7 miles long and we are missing about 3 feet of water. I would say this takes an incredible amount of force.
 
Bayshore boulevard is about 7 miles long and we are missing about 3 feet of water. I would say this takes an incredible amount of force.

Wow, didn't realize it was that deep along Bayshore Boulevard.

Regardless, there's definitely a big surge on its way back in.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Winds in Coral Springs are nasty but we still have power. I'm playing Final Fantasy Mystic Quest since I don't have to worry about the SNES getting affected by a power outage, lol.
 

SomTervo

Member
Aka the hurricane is a vacuum cleaner and its sucking up the water.

Mmm not quite. We're just talking about how water has been sucked away from the bay.

Using the vacuum cleaner analogy, it's not that the vacuum sucks water up INTO it. It's more like if you push the vacuum cleaner nozzle against a blanket, it sucks up a tiny portion of the blanket. This bit of the blanket isn't sucked INTO the vacuum cleaner, it just "pulls up".

And what hapoens to the blanket's edges? They too get pulled in a little.

So the hurricane is "swelling up" a bit of the sea which pulls the extremities (bays and coastal water) away from land towards the swelling.
 

III-V

Member
Wow, didn't realize it was that deep along Bayshore Boulevard.

Regardless, there's definitely a big surge on its way back in.

Off the top of my head, I would imagine 2.5 to 3 ft deep around the seawall, but yea, Bayshore may see some severe damage before this is all over.
 

GashPrex

NeoGaf-Gold™ Member
So there was a crackhead that was just walking around in the eye of the storm in east naples that wanted to know Jeff was driven around - praying for my house. Right in the path of the storm in Naples
 
Power came back on here (merritt island) guess they got guys working on em out in this.

Also tons of lightning/thunder. Ive been through quite a few hurricanes but havnt seen anything like this before.
 
Wow saw on CNN there are tornado's touching down in the east. Didn't know that could happen during hurricanes.

Scary stuff
Tormados caused a significant amount of damage during Andrew, but radars were knocked out during the storm and never recorded. Many of them are water spouts, slightly less dangerous than a true land tornado.
 
Top Bottom