MoJo: Five Good Things About a Hurricane

[Ruby the Liberal]

(This was an interesting read!)

1. Tropical cyclones are important rainmakers, providing 25 percent or more of available rainfall to places like Japan, India, and Southeast Asia—not to mention Texas, which desperately needs a dousing ASAP.

2. Tropical cyclones help maintain the global heat balance by moving warm tropical air away from the equator and towards the poles. Without them, the tropics would get a lot hotter and the poles a lot colder...

3. Paradoxically, fragile barrier islands need hurricanes for their survival—especially now, when sea levels are rising.

4. Tropical cyclones stir up the ocean and drive the process of upwelling, thus playing a part in the thermohaline circulation—another important transport mechanism distributing heat between the equator and the poles and keeping the earth's temperature in better balance.

5. By stirring the ocean, tropical cyclones also cycle nutrients from the seafloor to the surface, boosting ocean productivity and setting the stage for blooms of marine life.

Full comments and graphics at link: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/08/five-good-things-about-hurricane?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2FTheBlueMarble+%28Mother+Jones+|+The+Blue+Marble%29

[Demeter]

1. Unlikely Irene is going to Texas, though

That would be quite a trip, for everyone.

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. Very likely I misread it (and it wasn't very detailed)

but it seemed to me they were saying that cyclones/hurricanes promote regional 'cloud seeding'?

VERY out of my element on this. I saw it and thought I would check for opinions from the more scientifically minded. It would be AWESOME if this drenching rain can help Texas in some way.