# Hurricane Categories in Googlewatts or Similar **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069 "2005-10-20T13:21:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/1 "2005-10-20T13:21:26Z")
Okay, so a buddy of mine is convinced that the government is using HAARP to “pump up” and control hurricanes, which, of course, is impossible. I realize that it’s probably hopeless, but I’m hoping that if I can find a source which explains the power of hurricanes in the power of electrical energy, he’ll see that there’s simply no bloody way we could produce enough juice to kick a hurricane up from one category to another. So anybody know of such a cite? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/2 "2005-10-20T14:19:20Z")
> [@](#): > > A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x10[sup]13[/sup] watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. [AOML (NOAA) FAQ on nuking hurricanes](http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html) ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/3 "2005-10-20T16:34:52Z")
A “googlewatt” is, of course, the amount of power required by an Internet search engine. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/4 "2005-10-20T17:14:14Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Okay, so a buddy of mine is convinced that the government is using HAARP to “pump up” and control hurricanes, which, of course, is impossible. I realize that it’s probably hopeless, but I’m hoping that if I can find a source which explains the power of hurricanes in the power of electrical energy, he’ll see that there’s simply no bloody way we could produce enough juice to kick a hurricane up from one category to another. So anybody know of such a cite? Pump up, no; that requires far more energy than we can put into a hurricane. As far as steering them goes, I have heard claims that the military has experimented/intends to experiment with creating low pressure zones by using very a powerful radio beam to push up a local area of the ionosphere. The facility was somewhere in Alask IIRC. I believe I last read about it in one of those Project Censored books, for what it’s worth. The book was critical of the plan ( assuming it exists ); IIRC the reasons were : If it works, the military will screw with the weather without knowing what they are doing, with unknown results. If it doesn’t work, it’s a big waste of money. It’s a weapon of mass destruction, and one more likely to hurt civilians than anyone else. Producing that much radio energy is likely to screw up electronics all over Alaska; frying someone’s pacemaker in Anchorage isn’t what the military is supposed to be doing. ---
**Author:** ![aamco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@aamco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aamco)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/5 "2005-10-20T18:16:00Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > FAQ on nuking hurricanes Anyone else not surprised that the subject of nuking hurricanes is a _frequently_ asked question? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/6 "2005-10-20T21:40:51Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#): > > As far as steering them goes, I have heard claims that the military has experimented/intends to experiment with creating low pressure zones by using very a powerful radio beam to push up a local area of the ionosphere. The facility was somewhere in Alask IIRC. I believe I last read about it in one of those Project Censored books, for what it’s worth. That would be the HAARP I mentioned in the OP. Given that we can barely predict where they’re going to hit before they actually do, I find it hard to believe that we could figure out what to do to be able to move them around and enable them to hit the target of our choosing. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/7 "2005-10-20T21:58:42Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > A “googlewatt” is, of course, the amount of power required by an Internet search engine. Well, that would make a googlewatt roughly equivalent to 13 Megawatts, if we assume that Google’s [63,272 machines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform) are using roughly 200 watts each. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/8 "2005-10-21T00:19:42Z")
Actually, I assumed a Googlewatt would be a measure of how popular something is as determined by how many hits it gets on Google. For example, googling “cats” returns about 59,400,000 results, while googling “dogs” returns about 88,200,000. Therefore, dogs are just under 29 megagooglewatts more powerful than cats. By the way, see [http://www.googlefight.com/](http://www.googlefight.com/) Seriously, though, I think you meant “gigawatt”… ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/9 "2005-10-21T00:25:43Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > Seriously, though, I think you meant “gigawatt”… Actually, I figured that the power would be well **above** gigawatt, and used googlewatts as a generic term (though I should have spelled it “ **googolwatt** ”, I admit). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/10 "2005-10-21T04:59:08Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > That would be the HAARP I mentioned in the OP. Given that we can barely predict where they’re going to hit before they actually do, I find it hard to believe that we could figure out what to do to be able to move them around and enable them to hit the target of our choosing. The idea as I understand it, is that creating a low pressure zone will either create or attract storms; whether it would actually _work_, I’ve no idea. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-categories-in-googlewatts-or-similar/327069/11 "2005-10-21T05:18:19Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Well, that would make a googlewatt roughly equivalent to 13 Megawatts, if we assume that Google’s [63,272 machines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform) are using roughly 200 watts each. That point estimate is a year and a half old. At a recent talk at my university Google hinted at more than 150,000 servers.