Tropical Cyclones In Popular Culture

The appearances of tropical cyclones in popular culture spans many genres of media and encompasses many different plot uses.

It includes both fictional tropical cyclones, and real ones used as the basis for a fictional work, and has proven to be of enough interest for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA") to maintain a webpage on the topic.

Purpose in fiction and literature

Although many forms of natural disaster appear in fiction and literature, tropical cyclones serve a number of useful literary functions because they are both extraordinarily powerful and, to those who have some experience with them, their occurrence can be portended several days in advance. The NOAA page notes that:

The strength of the tropical cyclone has made it a device by which authors explain the upending of characters' lives, and even transformations of the personalities of those who live through such an event. Their somewhat hazy predictability also makes them a useful MacGuffin, an impetus for characters to set to action. In some instances, the storm provides cover for characters to engage in covert behavior.

Early history of tropical cyclones in literature

One of the earliest uses of a tropical cyclone as a plot device occurs in a William Shakespeare play, '' The Tempest'', first performed in 1611 or 1612. There, a storm (raised by the sorcerer Prospero) blows key characters to the island to which Prospero had been exiled many years before. The theme is said to have been inspired by Shakespeare's knowledge of a real-life hurricane which had caused the shipwreck of the ''Sea Venture'' in 1609 on the islands of Bermuda, while sailing toward Virginia.

Edgar Allan Poe, in his 1841 story, " A Descent into the Maelström", has the main character describe how "the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens" forced the boat crewed by himself and his brothers into a gigantic whirlpool. The trauma of surviving the storm and the whirlpool (and seeing the death of his brothers) is asserted to have a profound effect on the character, causing his hair to turn white. However, since the story is asserted to occur off the coast of Norway, it is unlikely that the event described could have fallen within the formal definition of a hurricane, as such storms form almost exclusively in the Maritime Tropical air masses of tropical regions of the globe.

Joseph Conrad, in his acclaimed 1903 book ''Typhoon'', uses a tropical cyclone as a more direct element of the story, centering the plot on a ship captain's stubborn insistence on going into the heart of such a storm.

Fictional tropical cyclones

Works predominantly focused on the occurrence of a fictional tropical cyclone

Books and plays

*(Unnamed): '' A High Wind in Jamaica'' (U.S. title: ''The Innocent Voyage''). In this 1929 novel by Richard Hughes, horrific incidents are described from a child's point of view, beginning with the destruction of the family's house by a hurricane. "If Emily had known this was a Hurricane, she would doubtless have been far more impressed, for the word was full of romantic terrors...."
*(Unnamed): '' In Hazard'', a 1938 novel by Richard Hughes. A single-screw turbine cargo steamer encounters a hurricane off the coast of Cuba. Reviewers compared it to Joseph Conrad's ''Typhoon,'' admired the weather descriptions, complained of "puppet-like" characters.
*(Unnamed): ''The Mystery of the Double Double Cross'' A 1982 novel by Mary Blount Christian prominently features a hurricane hitting Galveston, TX.
*Tropical Storm Barney: The name of an artificially enhanced tropical storm that strikes Barbados with winds in excess of in opening of the novel, '' Category 7: The Biggest Storm in History''. The authors describe the storms sudden intensification as "...bloated menacing clouds exploding over the open ocean with the unholy force of a mid-air detonation." This description is the books '' leitmotif'' for a manipulated storm.
*Hurricane Claude: A team of scientists try to use an EMP burst to destroy a Category Two hurricane following a track similar to that of the Long Island Express. Preceded by Hurricane Barbara.
*Hurricane Faith: Category Five Cape Verde hurricane which hits New York City with full force, causing a storm surge that topples the Statue of Liberty and inflicts severe damage on the rest of the city. The novels hurricane season prior to the appearance of Faith is described by one of the characters as "Just five in six weeks since the start of the season. And every one has gone flatter than my wife's pancakes in less than a week". Of these storms, only hurricanes Anthony( Category One), Barbara, Christopher & Eric are named in the novel.
*Hurricane Mabel: The name of the storm in Desmond Bagley's 1966 novel ''Wyatt's Hurricane''. The titular scientist predicts the hurricane will strike a small Caribbean island despite what the models show. Local rebels use it to help overthrow the island's dictator. ''Mabel'' is described at the start of the novel as having a central pressure of 870 millibars and an outside pressure of 1040 millibars and winds strong enough to classify it as Category Five. Reference is also made in the novel to Hurricane Ione as proof of the difficulties of forecasting a hurricanes course. Preceded by Hurricane Laura.
*Maria: The name of the storm in George R. Stewart's bestselling 1941 novel, ''Storm.'' Although not, strictly speaking, a hurricane, the storm is highly notable for receiving a woman's name, the first widely known example of such personification. In the novel, a character referred to only as "the Junior Meteorologist" gives storms women's names as a private mental game. Stewart said that he was inspired by reading that "a certain meteorologist had even felt storms to be so personal that he had given them names." Stewart's book in turn inspired Lerner and Loewe's song "They Call the Wind Maria." It is widely thought to have influenced U.S. Navy meteorologists, who gave female names to Pacific tropical storms during World War II.
*Hurricane Omega: The name of a Category Five hurricane threatening the east coast of the United States that is deflected by moving the jet stream.
*Hurricane Simone: The name of an artificially created storm that threatens to hit New York City with a strength of above Category Five in the novel, ''Category 7: The Biggest Storm in History''. While the storm is successfully disrupted before it makes landfall, the storm surge it generates devastates the city and topples the Statue of Liberty into the Hudson. Reference is made to Hurricanes Mitch & Ivan as being the products of trial runs of the technology used to create Simone, which was originally developed and tested during the 1971 Pacific typhoon season by the U.S. Government.

Television

*(Unnamed): Category Five storm of mysterious origin that threatens Miami with winds of over in the first-season episode ''Target Hurricane'' of Science Fiction Theater.
*Hurricane Grace and Hurricane Agatha: The made-for-BBC
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