In 2005 weather forecasters watched as a tropical depression deepened into a tropical storm. They could predict its path with confidence,but not its strength. Katrina rose to hurricane force over Florida, in the US, or then dropped back to tropical storm levels. But it finished by accelerating to a category 5 hurricane before striking Louisiana.
Katrina underlined the need for better ways of forecasting hurricane strength. The challenge is to find out what is happening at sea level,where heat from the water drives the winds, in an area totally obscured by the mass of rotating cloud.
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Source: theguardian.com