Is Climate Change Starting a New Dust Bowl? Cycle A

Hurricanes Dean and Felix both made landfall in Central America in 2007. It was the first time since record keeping began in the late 1800s that two Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in the same year. Also, on the same day Felix came ashore, Hurricane Henriette made landfall across the southern tip of Baja California. This marked the first time Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes made landfall on the same day, according to National Hurricane Center records that date back to 1949.



The 1900 Galveston Hurricane had a great impact on the city of Galveston (6,000 Deaths, Millions of dollars in destruction) and the people living in the area. The hurricane affected how people would live near the ocean coast, and how they will prepare for a hurricane. Hurricanes are a natural disaster that affects coastline cities; we need to come up with new ways to prevent the loss of lives, and damage of hurricanes after landfall

E >B Hurricane destroys vegetation life, due to high-speed winds, damaging hail, and rainfall (Prior Knowledge, Observation)

E > H Hurricanes cause massive flooding in low surround areas, overflow rivers, with the amount of rainfall

E > A Hurricanes affects the air pressure of the region, causes rainfall, and wind speeds to change

E > L Hurricanes cause weathering and erosion to land, because of damaging wind, rainfall, and hail.

E > H Hurricanes become stronger due to warm ocean water

E > H > A the decomposing life (plants, animals, maybe humans) contaminate water and land for other living-organisms.

E > L > B >H Due to the over flooding of the land region, this will cause contamination of water with sewage or remaining still water, which may cause contamination to life and the land.

E > B Human life, Animal Life, and Plant life is affected because of damaging wind speeds, debris, and water

E > B > L Land would be destroyed/eroded, which would lead to the destruction of animal habitats

List your personal understanding, ideas, or hunches

My personal understanding of hurricanes is that they are a major natural disaster force that creates destruction once a hurricane makes land fall. Hurricanes usually originate from storms that come from the coast of Africa, and travel through the ocean gaining strength from the warm ocean waters. I remember when Hurricane Dolly hit near the Rio Grande Valley; we felt the affects of the hurricane, even though we weren’t directly hit (major flooding). Hurricane Katrina destroyed parts of New Orleans due to the flooding and the strength of the Hurricane, people weren’t prepared for a powerful storm. Hurricanes are measured in five categories depending on the speed of their winds. Hurricanes have an eye, center of the storm, and it’s the calmest place within the storm. There is hurricane season, which is approximately between 6-7 months, starts in the summer to October. Meteorologists observe and keep track of hurricanes using special satellites taking images and recording speed patterns of the storm. Hurricanes start off as a tropical depression, and then as they become stronger they change into a tropical storm and then a developed hurricane.

The United States experiences hurricane season for 6-7 months. (Prior Knowledge)

Hurricane Galveston destroyed Galveston in the year 1900. (Scenario)

There are five types of categories of hurricanes depending on wind speed. (Prior Knowledge)

Hurricanes get stronger in warm water. (Prior Knowledge)

More than 6,000-12,000 people lost their lives in 1900 Galveston Hurricane. (Scenario)

In 1915, Galveston was more prepared for a Hurricane, with elevated sand foundations and streets. (Scenario)

List what is unknown

What were the effects of the Galveston Hurricane had on the region?

How have climate conditions of hurricane past change compared to today’s climate conditions of hurricanes.

How long do hurricanes last after making landfall?

How has the temperature in the Gulf of Mexico changed in the past century?

Does the warm waters of Gulf of Mexico affect the growth of Hurricanes?

Does El Nino have any affect on hurricane growth?

What materials were used to build houses and building in Galveston in 1900.

How were people warned about hurricanes in the 1900’s?

How soon (time frame) are people warned about approaching hurricanes?

Does global warming have an affect on the strength of hurricanes?

Does pumping sand from the ocean floor have greater effect on protecting coastline cities?

What materials are equipped to withstand hurricane weather forces?

How have hurricanes in the past century changed over the years (size, wind speed, speed, origin).

Research must be done to answer individual unknown questions and share ideas with my teammates.

Research online databases, ask questions to teammates

My team will share their ideas and thoughts in order to create a team problem statement, to conduct further research to support our problem statement.

Hurricanes are natural disasters that are presented every year; they cause catastrophic disaster to the area they approach. By using today’s weather technology and resources, how can we help in the prevention of major damage to cities and regions before a hurricane landfall.

As a team we will gather, organize and analyze information based on our teams problem statement. We will exchange thoughts, hunches, and reflection on each other’s problem statement, and the teams problem statement and questions. All gathered information would be presented in our team’s wiki page.

As a team we will present our individual work and our team information (problem statement) through our team wiki page.