20080901 New Orleans: Gustav is just the start of a major hurricane season

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Gustav marks the latest storm in what could be a particularly violent hurricane season. A street at a railroad crossing near the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal is flooded as Hurricane Gustav hits New Orleans Hurricanes are created when a cluster of thunderstorms gather to form a low-pressure area, which draws in air and generates spin in a counter-clockwise direction. Warm ocean water, typically in excess of 27C, fuels the transfer of heat and moisture to generate thunderstorms that rise upward. If there are no strong winds to break up the storm, it intensifies. Prof Bill McGuire, Director of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre in London said: "There is growing evidence that higher sea-surface temperatures resulting from climate change have driven increased Atlantic hurricane activity in the last few decades. Given this scenario, the locations of a number of major US cities in the hurricane belt, in particular New Orleans, Miami and Houston, are becoming increasingly precarious."