500 MPH Storm

Kaia Stott
MET 1010
500 MPH Storm is a movie about a clean energy project that goes
wrong, causing a rash of massive hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods
across North America. The people must rush to safety and scientists
have to try to find a way to stop the hurricanes from merging, creating
a "hypercane." A non-realistic combination of many hurricanes, it
would be so powerful that it would decimate America. This movie had
some correct depictions of hurricanes, as well as incorrect depictions.
A hurricane is a tropical cyclonic storm that forms in the North
Atlantic Ocean, with wind speeds exceeding 72 miles per hour.
Hurricanes can have many disastrous effects on the cities that they
move into. Hurricanes form when Tropical cyclones use warm, moist air
from over the ocean, which is why they only form over the ocean near
the equator. The warm air rises, causing an area of lower air pressure
below. Surrounding air with high air pressure moves into the lowpressure area, and then the air becomes warm and moist and rises as
well. As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air moves in to
fill its spot. The system feeds off of the warmth and moisture of the
ocean.
The film correctly portrayed some of the hurricane phenomenas.
In on scene, for example, it showed a satellite image of a hurricane as
it rotated counterclockwise, which is correct because it took place in
Texas and hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Another way
that 500 MPH storm correctly displayed the hurricane was in a scene
where a scientist knew a hurricane was forming because the pressure
dropped and the winds were increasing, which is correct because
hurricanes have the lowest pressure recordings and high wind speeds.
500 MPH Storm incorrectly depicts the possible speed of a
hurricane and the actions people should take in order to stay safe
during a hurricane. The main character in the movie is a Meteorologist,
so, one would expect him to know about how to stay safe and protect
his family during a massive storm. Although he is a Meteorologist,
throughout the movie he makes bad decisions about how to be safe. In
one scene, he is at home, sees a tornado coming, and tells his family
to get in the car to try to out drive the tornado. Then, a flood is racing
toward them, but they continue to try to drive faster than the
floodwaters and they make it, which is very unrealistic. The
Meteorologist wants to protect his family from the hurricane, so his
idea is to make their way to a higher elevation, such as the mountains,
even though hurricane winds are stronger at higher elevations. When
their car is stolen, they are forced to try to outrun the storm, where
they come across a river, and the man takes his family with him across

the river, even though a flash flood could happen any minute from the
amount of rain.
The Fujiwhara effect is a main cause of worry in this movie. The
Fujiwhara effect is a situation in which multiple hurricanes form in very
close range of each other and begin to rotate about each other. In 500
MPH Storm, the Meteorologist says that the Fujiwhara effect is when
hurricanes join together, which would create a vortex the size of
Texas. The Fujiwhara Effect does not make hurricanes join together; it
is simply the phenomenon when two hurricanes come close together.
The movie got its name from the chance of a hypercane, or a
giant hurricane that could grow to be the size of America. For a
hurricane to become a hypercane, the oceans temperature would have
to rise to at least 113 degrees Fahrenheit.
Overall, the film, 500 MPH Storm, depicted false, dramatic
portrayals of a storm that large, which included Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and flooding. Although some of the scenes were correct in their
science. Safety wise though, if everyone did what he or she showed in
this movie, they would all be dead. Good movie though as far as
entertainment goes.

References:
Emanuel, Kerry A. "Hypercanes: A Possible Link to Global
Extinction Scenarios." Journal of Geophysical Research, 20 July
1995. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
"How Do Hurricanes Form?" NASA Space Place. NASA. Web. 25
Apr. 2016.
Leahy, Stephen. "ENVIRONMENT: The Dawn of the Hypercane?"
Inter Press Service, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.