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Big Kahuna
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(Weather Hobbyist)
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Thu Aug 11 2005 04:10 PM
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Measuring a Huricanes size.
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How is it you measure the size of a hurricane. For instance if I'm looking at a visable loop and click on the" Latt. on " button what is the distance between 20N and 30N?
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Clark
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(Meteorologist)
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Thu Aug 11 2005 05:27 PM
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Re: Measuring a Huricanes size.
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The distance between points of longitude varies with how close to the poles you are. Between latitudes, it is generally about 111km/69mi. Between longitudes, you have to multiply it by the cosine of the latitude (in degrees).
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danielw
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(Moderator)
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Thu Aug 11 2005 05:40 PM
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Re: Measuring a Hurricanes size.
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Here is a link that has the mathematical formula built in.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gccalc.shtml?
At 60.0 W, the distance between 20.0 N and 30.0 N is 600nm. Using this calculator.
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Clark
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(Meteorologist)
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Thu Aug 11 2005 06:48 PM
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Re: Measuring a Hurricanes size.
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Yep -- it's 60nm between 1 deg. of latitude, while it is 69 statute miles. The great circle calculator is really useful...does a good job of doing those calculations pretty simply.
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Big Kahuna
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(Weather Hobbyist)
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Fri Aug 12 2005 04:12 PM
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Re: Measuring a Hurricanes size.
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Thanks for the help. I tried to research it before asking and on some sites they (like the NHC) would just say that the typical hurricane was 300 miles wide but gave no explination on how they can to that conclusion. When I would look at a Sat. Loop without a point of reference (land mass, recon flight) I couldnt tell. I know that sometimes size (of the cyclone ) does'nt matter as explained in the link attached.
http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/prepare/structure.htm
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