Rotational winds blowing onto the eastern Atlantic off west Africa get carried across by the trade winds, turned north by the Gulf Stream. On the way, the storms pick up energy and water from the warm waters of the tropical Atlantic and ... voila! a hurricane.
First come the winds from the east, blowing lots of rain over us, then intensifying as the storms center approaches. If the eye stays to the east, we get soaked and the winds intensify out of the north. The closer the eye to us, the stronger the winds.
Check out The Weather Channels' Hurricane Central http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/
Through our dry July and wet August, trees have been stressed and may be weakened by decay. That increases the likelihood of trees or tree limbs coming down in those high winds. In the months and years after the trees fall, the new areas of open canopy present opportunities for a variety of shrubs, wildflowers, and sapling trees. As you take a walk through your favorite woodland, try to notice if the trees are of roughly the same size or many different sizes. A new successional woodland has lots of trees of similar age and, therefore, size. The more decades since the last major, tree-dropping event, the greater the variety of ages and sizes of the trees. The landscape tells the story of the past. Check out Harvard Forests' information on landscapes. http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/museum.html Our landscape has been filling in since the agricultural clearing of the 1800's.
See what Wikipedia has to say about the Hurricane of '38... the one that all of the news channels are comparing Irene to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_New_England_hurricane One major difference to keep in mind is that we have more trees that are bigger and older than back then. The aspens and birches that may have dominated 100 to 50 years ago are pioneers that do well in disturbed soil with lots of sunlight. Now, they're 50 to 100 years old and reaching the end of their lives at roughly the same time. They've been replaced with oaks and lots of white pine and maples.
csfs.colostate.edu
Remember, though, if lots of wood comes down in your area ... don't transport it with you to use as firewood when you've gone camping. The Asian Longhorn Beetle is a growing threat to trees all over New England. The worst of the infestation may be in the Worcester area, but it's been found in small pockets far beyond. For more info, go to the Mass DAR website http://www.mass.gov/agr/alb.htm
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