As I was mesmerized into the waves below my feet, I heard my name being called out from behind me. I quickly turned around and recognized Jill and Carolyn, two best friends that accompanied me in a few courses that I took for my offshore training (HUET). Ironically, we have not seen each other for 6 months, but somehow in this moment we were standing on the same ship. We had a quick chat session and then I was summoned to leave.

The captain exclaimed, “The weather is getting rough; we need to get you off the boat before the seas get worse.” The boat had begun to violently rock back and forth; obviously, something big was about to happen.

Captain Brian, a shaven-head and good-looking British gentleman peered around the corner of the ship’s office on the bridge. He emphasized, “The weather conditions are really increasing; additionally, there’s a hurricane that will be coming through our survey in the next few days.”

I had never seen a hurricane, let alone be in one! I was slightly nervous with this news, but I was reassured that we will be notified about the hurricane before it becomes a major threat. Though this statement made me feel a little better, I was still anxious about what was in store for the Polar Sea. 

Once I left the bridge, I had a few hours before I had to conduct visual observations of the marine mammals in the project area. Right after lunch, I had acquainted myself with the internet. I scanned articles about hurricanes and how one can define them.

I came across several sources that explained hurricanes more in depth. I spent a few extra minutes researching how warm the temperature had to be, what conditions sustain a hurricane, etc. I have included my findings below.

The vertical wind shear in a tropical cyclone’s environment is also important. Wind shear is defined as the amount of change in the wind’s direction or speed with increasing altitude. Wind shear plays a role in hurricane formation.

When the wind shear is weak, the storms that are part of the cyclone grow vertically, and the latent heat from condensation is released into the air directly above the storm, aiding in development. When there is stronger wind shear, this means that the storms become more slanted and the latent heat release is dispersed over a much larger area.

“Usually the bulk of activity is in August through October,” said Chris Landsea of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory. “June and July are typically not good indicators for the rest of the season.”

The reason hurricanes occur during these months is that they need warm water, which feeds a storm with energy, in order to form. For a hurricane to have enough energy to form and keep going, the water must be at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.5 Celsius) down to at least 150 feet (50 meters), scientists estimate. The atmosphere must also be laden with moisture.

8. How do cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons differ? Cyclone, typhoon and hurricane are all just different names for the same basic weather phenomenon. They are all powerful, spinning storms collectively called tropical cyclones, which form over warm tropical waters and reach sustained internal wind speeds of 74 miles per hour.

Hurricanes start in the Atlantic, Caribbean and northeast Pacific, while typhoons form in the western Pacific and southeastern Indian Ocean. If one of these monsters develops in certain parts of the Indian Ocean or part of the southwest Pacific Ocean, it goes by one of three variations of the generic term cyclone.

The storms are named according to seasonal lists kept by their respective basin’s monitoring body. Typhoons and hurricanes and cyclones all rotate in the same direction, counterclockwise, if they form in the Northern Hemisphere.

So-called “backward” storms, which rotate clockwise, form in the Southern Hemisphere, though they are extremely rare in the Atlantic basin. Clockwise-rotating storms are more common in the Indian Ocean and off the coast of Australia, however.

After reading dozens of articles and researching further information on hurricanes, I had an in-depth conversation about hurricanes and the damage that they cause. I called my family and told them that a hurricane may interfere with our project. Ironically, my mother was already watching the news and following Hurricane Bertha’s every move across the Atlantic Ocean.

I reassured her that I would keep her updated on our ship’s position. That night as I laid my head down on my pillow, I thought about what I would do in the case of an emergency.

How would I react if a hurricane was approaching our ship? Would our ship act just in the nick of time? Or would our ship be destroyed by the monstrous waves and the violent winds? The situation will unravel itself, but I do hope that I am on the weather gods “good side.”