By Grace Blummer-Lamotte

On August 16th, 2020, Hurricane Laura started to form a disastrous path. It started its path just off of a large tropical wave that moved off the West African coast. On August 20th, 2020, it became a “tropical depression”.

The highest recorded wind speed of this hurricane lasted one minute and it was 150 miles per hour. This is the twelfth named storm, fourth hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. It dissipated August 29th, 2020.

The storm affected people’s lives by taking 42 lives and destroying homes. Family members have been lost, and major flooding after the hurricane caused damage to homes and towns requiring people to have to rebuild their homes and towns. The damage this hurricane did cost $10 billion dollars just on the Southwestern portion of Louisiana and the Southeastern portion of Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico. To put $10 billion dollars into perspective, you could buy at least 10 football stadiums and still have a lot more money left. 

You may be wondering why we name hurricanes. The reason is because they are tropical storms such as hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons that can last for months and sometimes years. Scientists used to track them by their year, but because we could experience 100 storms in 12 months, they started naming tropical storms so they are easier to track.

According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center they are forecasting 13-19 named storms with winds 39 miles per hour and higher, 6-10 that could result in hurricanes with winds of 74 miles per hour and higher, and also 3-6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4, and 5, which is winds 111 miles per hour and higher).