What Made The Perfect Storm?

To the point; the tropical storm/hurricane that is being coined with the same name as the highly anticipated movie that is set to hit theaters this week was termed that because storms of this kind don't usually take a surname when they travel so far up north on the east coast of the United States.

Having said that, it does not take away from the magnitude of power that this storm brought for several days along the U.S. coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The Perfect Storm, also known to New Englanders as the "Halloween Hurricane," was composed of three storms that met at a central point. The combination of a high-pressure system, an extra tropical cyclone that had earlier swept through the mid-western United States and Hurricane Grace brought what resulted in waves of 100 feet - the equivalent of a ten-story building- as well as winds up to 120 mph.

These storms are some of the strongest and most terrifying manifestations of nature's strength. When caught in one of these storms, vessels careen up and down these huge walls of water that are sometimes several times their size. The wind tortures boats that are caught in the thick of these storms, sometimes spraying water at their crews like a machine gun spraying bullets, while other times ripping into the rigging of the boats, tearing them apart. Sometimes even, the air is so thick with moisture that it is actually possible to drown by breathing it.

In these storms, the rule of thumb is that larger boats fare better than smaller ones. However, there are various elements of waves and winds that can rip the largest of ships apart like a piece of paper. "We've had cases where cargo ships have had all their containers just ripped right off," says Dan Dewell, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard. "We've had to airlift whole crews off giant freighters."

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has lived along the East Coast of the United States. Hurricanes have wreaked havoc on the coast for several decades of recorded history, causing damages so severe that when you read the figures, you cannot believe they're sound. For example, Hurricane Andrew, a very powerful storm that ripped through the south-eastern part of the United States, caused up to $30,475,000,000 in damages.

A hurricane is a violent, warm core, tropical storm that has a minimum wind speed of 74 mph. It rotates in a counter-clockwise spiraling position around a region of low-pressure, which is called the eye or center. A cyclone, or tornado, is defined as similar to a hurricane, except it takes place on the mainland and has winds that move at a much slower, yet still deadly, rate (20-30 mph) than a hurricane.

With the Halloween Hurricane, a cyclone met hurricane Grace off the coast of Massachusetts along with a high-pressure system and created one of the most electrifying and damaging tropical storms of U.S. history. Experts have said that the year 2000 has the potential of being a very active year as far as hurricanes are concerned. The hurricane season starts approximately on June 1 and ends around November 30.