Fact Number One: Hurricanes are named after a Taino God
Hurricanes are violent storms that form in a spiral over land. The word ‘Hurricane’ comes from the indigenous people who lived in Florida and the Caribbean, They were the Tainos. They believed the god Huracan created these violent storms. Huracan was the Mayan god of evil, storms, fire, and wind.
Fact Number Two: Hurricanes can make it rain fish!
In Christian beliefs raining fish from the sky is a sign of the end of the world but it can really happen. Hurricanes pull fish and other things into the air and then they drop to the earth. This can make it look like it is raining fish. It has happened as recently as 2021 during a hurricane in Texas.
Fish might rain from the sky but its not the end of the world.
Fact Number Three: Hurricanes spin in different directions depending on where you live
The World is split into two hemispheres, the North and South hemisphere with a line down the middle called the Equator.
In the Northern Hemisphere hurricanes spin counterclockwise and in the Southern Hemisphere hurricanes spin clockwise. In the Southern Hemisphere hurricanes are called cyclones. This is because of how air and water moves around the world as it rotates. It is called the Coriolis effect.
Fact Number Four: The middle of the hurricane is called the ‘Eye’
The safest place to be in a hurricane is actually right in the middle of it. The ‘eye of the storm’ is the area in the middle of the hurricane and the weather there is calm. The eye can be between 2 miles and 200 miles wide. They are usually around 20 miles wide.
But just outside the eye of the storm is where the storm is worse, with the strongest winds.
Fact Number Five: There is a hurricane on the planet Jupiter which has lasted over 400 years
The earth isn’t the only planet to have hurricanes, there is a huge hurricane on Jupiter that is still going now. It is called the Great Red Spot and it is so big you can see it through a telescope.
The Great Red Spot was first seen in the 1600s by an Italian astronomer. He noted that it was a long oval shape, but now the storm is more circular. The storm has been going for over 400 years and the winds in it are up to 270 miles per hour.
The Great Red Spot is a huge storm. It is big enough to fit the Earth inside it two or three times! It keeps going because of the gases in Jupiter’s atmosphere being different temperatures but it may someday stop. So, if you have a telescope you should try and spot it!
Want to learn even more about Hurricanes? Check out our other video!