Does anyone know the math to figure out how much the winds slow down in a hurricane

[Baitball Blogger]

the farther the distance from the eye? I think the answer might be found by finding out why the right side of a hurricane has the most damaging winds.

[Phoenix61]

1. The north side is the worst. It's the way the

storm spins. How the wind speed drops going out from the eye is based on the size of the storm.

[SeattleVet]

2. Here is a pretty good 'Anatomy of a Hurricane"

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Hurricanes/hurricanes_2.php

Excerpt:

"The most destructive section of the storm is in the eye wall on the side where the wind blows in the same direction as the storm’s forward motion. For example, in a hurricane that is moving due west, the most intense winds would be found on the northern side of the storm, since the hurricane’s winds are added to the storm’s forward motion.

Surrounding the eye wall are curved bands of clouds that trail away in a spiral fashion, suitably called spiraling rain bands. The rain bands are capable of producing heavy bursts of rain and wind, perhaps one-half or two-thirds the strength of those associated with the eye wall."

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http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/about/intensity.shtml

"The extent of damaging winds will vary between cyclones. More importantly, the most severe winds will be confined to a small area around the outside of the eye.Often people will experience the winds in the outer part of a Category 4 or 5 cyclone. They will believe that they have experienced a major cyclone, yet the winds may have only been Cat 1 or 2 strength."

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There is a good graph here showing the falloff of wind speed from the eye:
http://www.meteo.fr/temps/domtom/La_Reunion/webcmrs9.0/anglais/education/danger/danger.html

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Search for "hurricane wind speed vs distance from eye" for several good articles and graphs that may help you.

Hope this helps!

[lordsummerisle]

3. The energy is mind-boggling

Imagine if we could capture and store it for future use.

[Volaris]

5. Yep...something like the energy equalivant of the entire electrical usage of the US per day,

For every day it's a cat 4 (I think that's what I read somewhere?)...

[Poiuyt]

4. It depends on whether or not you drop a nuclear bomb into the eye.

Duh

[BadgerKid]

6. Try looking at Holland (2010) article

Google: radial wind profile of hurricane

[LeftInTX]

7. It depends on the storm, some storms have very large windfields, some have smaller.

The east side and north side of a hurricane are more damaging. The east and north side tend to be more damaging the further north you go. In places like Central America hurricanes are more symmetric.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Thanks to everyone who posted!

Very helpful. Plenty to work with.

[LeftInTX]

9. Dorian is weakening, while wind field is expanding due to eyewall replacement.

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Dorians-Wind-Field-Likely-Weaken-and-Expand-Due-Eyewall-Replacement-Cycle?cm_ven=cat6-widget

Note: I've seen hurricanes with large wind fields, but lower winds Sandy for example. It all depends on the atmosphere. Here is Sandy. (Sorry the source is Pete King, but he had the best picture.)

?itok=X_UYuWqu

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Great info from that article:

"Dorian’s current wind field had hurricane-force winds that were extending out about 30 miles to west, towards Florida, and up to 45 miles to the east, away from Florida. We might expect Dorian’s radius of hurricane-force winds to increase to 40 miles to west, towards Florida, and up to 55 miles to the east by Tuesday afternoon and evening, when the hurricane will be making its closest approach to Florida. This makes it more likely that Cape Canaveral will experience hurricane-force winds, since Dorian may pass within 50 miles of there on Tuesday night."

[Generic Brad]

10. The answer is 6

And, no. I won't show my work.