There's been a lot of talk about hurricanes going around — and my guest, meteorologist Chris Martz, helps break down the science.With the recent Hurricane Melissa devastating Western Jamaica in late October — a Category 5 storm, which was described as having 252 km/h winds or higher.This has sparked much debate about how often hurricanes at this level are occurring — and whether they're caused by climate change. Martz says hurricane activity usually follows a period of fluctuation: "we are in an active period.""Generally, in the last 30 years, it's been active just as it was active between the 1930s and early 1960s." Martz expands on the science of what hurricanes are and their patterns in the clip below... ."It was also very active in the early and in late 19th century," Martz continued. "And we saw low periods of activity in the early 20th century.""We saw in the late 20th century, up until between 1970 and 1995 — It was very quiet activity, with the exception of obviously hurricanes, Hugo in '89, and Andrew in '92."As for what hurricanes are, Martz says, they "are essentially giant heat engines."."Their job, really, from a thermodynamic standpoint, is to take heat accumulating in the tropics and transport it poleward," Martz stated.Something you might not have known, huh? Click here to watch the whole clip.
