[pbmaise]

In Hawaii, hurricanes seem to stop dead in their tracks the closer they get to the tall volcanoes. Video, pictures, and history are on:

http://www.city-data.com/blogs/blog2...insurance.html

All Florida insurance money now goes just to cover damages in the next hurricane. That money makes investors richer and Florida poorer.

If we came up with a way to duplicate somehow what Hawaii has, would investing 10 or 100 billion dollars be a good idea?

Anyone have ideas?

[ferret111]

Finally! The word "boondoggle" can be used to describe something other than public transportation!

But seriously. No, you can't prevent hurricanes from hitting Florida.

[justNancy]

No, I don't think we can stop hurricanes in Florida. The U.S. Government started Project Stormfury over 40 years ago. Here is a little history about it.

[URL="http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hrd_sub/sfury.html"]Hurricane Research Division[/URL]

However, it is an interesting idea and not as far-fetched as many people imagine. Even if the intensity of a hurricane could be affected by reducing its winds, it would be very helpful, but so far Mother Nature is winning the battle.

[Maggi07]

I'm not really sure what you are asking. Are you thinking we should somehow build volcanoes?

In any case; no, there is nothing we can do to protect Florida from hurricanes.

[bbronston]

Let's get to work on that right after we figure out that whole "turning lead into gold" thing. That way we can afford to build our volcano.

[gypsychic]

Remember the " butterfly effect", when you start to manipulate the weather, there can be dire consequences elsewhere.

[pbmaise]

I was in Europe recently and recall seeing a laboratory where a chemist was busy at work trying to turn lead into gold. It was rather a nice lab and the chemist obviously had a pretty good job compared to others employed by the lord of the manor.

We taxpayers, are like the lords of the manor of old, and we have paid many dollars for researchers to do experiments and come up with theories to stop hurricanes. Even Bill Gates has gotten into the act. However, as one person pointed out money spent on them so far hasn't yielded any gold.

Mostly people have the idea of putting cold water in, liquid nitrogen, or dropping in a powder that turns to ice. The problem with all those approaches is the shear amount of material that would be needed to be stored and quickly moved.

In Hawaii there are two things going on that protects most of Hawaii. Kauai, unfortunately, is too far from where the defense is to benefit from the protection and remains hurricane prone and susceptible. Hawaii's 3 biggest volcanoes turn moisture into snow. Each lb of snow formed removes about 12,000 btu of energy and steals 1 lb of water away.

Hawaii has hundreds of square miles of land above 9000 feet elevation and all that land can receive a lot of snow.

I agree it isn't practical to build a 13,000 foot tall mountain in Florida. However, what is practical is to examine the second thing the volcanoes do very closely. They are deflecting warm moist air into the jet stream where it gets carried harmlessly away.

Check out these videos of hurricane Flossie dying at the foot of Hawaii Island. The big streaks in the sky in the first photos come from moisture turned into ice crystals high in the jet stream.



YouTube - ‪Hurricane Flossie Updated‬‏

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Deflection of winds UP into the jet stream isn't very practical for Atlantic hurricanes. You need a volcano to replicate the action in Hawaii.

However, just think a second what would occur if you deflected part of the jet stream DOWN. The air above Florida and the Gulf states is just as cold and dry as it is above Hawaii. So there is already a large natural defense sitting above these hurricane prone areas too.

If, and yes this is a big if, enough cold dry air can be sunk in front of an approaching hurricane, it will mix with the early winds. The mixture will become cool air and some water vapor will condense. The condensation in turn removes even more energy and the front gets even cooler.

The great thing about cool damp air is it is heavy. This means it will sink. The sinking air will draw even more of the jet stream lower and accelerate the process.

All this is pie in the sky theory..and isn't the phrase great? The pie is already in the sky. The solution to stopping a hurricane may be just sitting there waiting to get used from above.

Remember we are speaking in the many billions of dollars so the budget to build something is great. Whatever it is has to be able to be deployed and moved in position so it can be set in action days before the hurricane arrives.

Deflecting the wind isn't something new. We have been using it to our advantage for thousands of years on sailboats.

I will leave it to more capably people to figure out how much needs to be deflected down and how to go about doing it.

I'm just trying to turn a few heads to look at Hawaii and ponder the fact that most of Hawaii is not hurricane prone nor susceptible. Why not learn from it?

[Crane's Rooster]

Trying to stop a hurricane is like....well TRYING TO STOP A HURRICANE. I just don't think it's humanly possible.

[user8]

Originally Posted by Crane's Rooster

Trying to stop a hurricane is like....well TRYING TO STOP A HURRICANE. I just don't think it's humanly possible.

i don't buy this. we just haven't figured out to do it yet.

[LABART]

Originally Posted by user8

i don't buy this. we just haven't figured out to do it yet.

What would be the consequences involved in stopping the hurricanes? Besides the loss of personal property. They do serve a purpose. What would happen if the oceans were not able to be cooled down?