Required Software

To open these system models, you will need to download Vensim: a free software designed for creating models.

To run the model, click "Synthesim," and you will be able to see the relationship between hurricane speed and destruction. To adjust parameters, such as the speed of trade winds, use the scroll bar to manipulate the variables and see how that impacts the relation between hurricane speed and destruction.

Hurricane Speed and Destruction

In this model, the the quantities are number of houses and hurricane speed. The speed of a hurricane is increased by 160% if it interacts with Trade Winds and Westerlies, or the hurricane speed decreases by 40% if it interacts with a high pressure system. Hurricane speed then contributes to the percent chance that a house will be destroyed which is 20% of the hurricane speed.

The graph of hurricane speed and the number of destroyed houses over time is exponential. As the rate of a hurricane's speed increases the rate at which their are safe houses decreases.

Download model file