Katrina Approaching

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 06:22 CDT Download full size image

Tropical Storm Katrina will likely gain strength and be upgraded to a hurricane before striking the coast of Florida late Thursday night or early Friday morning. As of Thursday morning, August 25, Katrina had maximum sustained winds of about 43 knots or 50 miles per hour (1 knot = 1.15 mph). Katrina will likely attain the relatively weak Category 1 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with maximum sustained winds between 64 and 83 knots (74 and 95 mph). August 24th was the 13th anniversary of hurricane Andrew, one of the most destructive natural disasters in the recorded history of the United States; it was the most expensive, causing over $30 billion in property damage. Katrina will be the 12 major storm event of the 2005 season. Tropical storms and hurricanes are types of tropical cyclones, the generic term for rotating masses of air centered on an area of low atmospheric pressure. Tropical cyclones form over warm, tropical oceans and are often responsible for heavy rains, tornadoes, and storm surges.

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