- The earth is a living planet.

[coyote howls] Its beauty and diversity was created and nourished by the winds and the rains.

[serene music] But sometimes this mixture can also be a recipe for disaster.

[adventurous music] The island of Kauai in Hawaii is one of the wettest places on earth.

This abundance of water brought by the trade winds of the Pacific has created lush tropical rainforests and magnificent waterfalls.

But Kauai has also experienced what happens when the same two basic elements, wind and water, are whipped into a frenzy, a hurricane.

[wind rustling] Wind and water, a recipe for paradise and for disaster.

[woman vocalizing] [serene music] [water splashes] [serene music] [woman vocalizing] - [Narrator] More than three quarters of planet Earth is covered by water.

And above that, lies an ocean of air.

Air and water are always in motion creating global patterns of wind and ocean currents that carry heat around the planet, evening out extreme temperatures.

Wind and water make the earth a comfortable place to live.

[woman vocalizing continues] We experience these movements as weather.

[water splashing] But wind and water shape the nature of the whole planet.

[rain pattering] This wind and water system is powered by the sun which burns down most fiercely at the equator.

The sun's heat warms tropical seas and the air above them.

Hot air rises.

Tropical sea birds use these lifting air currents as they search the ocean for food.

[birds squawking] The warm ocean saturates this rising air with moisture.

But as the air continues to rise, it cools down and water vapor condenses to form clouds.

Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water, so small and light they float in the air, like breath on a cold day.

Blown by the wind, these clouds may end up over land where hills and mountains force them to rise even higher, cooling even more.

The droplets of water get bigger.

So big they're too heavy to float and they fall as rain.

Lots of rain.

[rain pattering] At the equator, this potent mixture of heat and rain creates tropical rainforest.

[gentle music] Nature runs riot here with uncountable numbers of different plants and animals.

[gentle music continues] [woman vocalizing] [rain pattering] All around the equator, wherever enough rain saturates the land, there is tropical rainforest.

[gentle music continues] [woman vocalizing] In Southeast Asia the rain is brought by seasonal winds.

The monsoons.

They come every April and stay until October, drenching the forest and everything in it.

And in Australia, the tip of Queensland reaches just far enough north to be a part of this tropical rainforest belt.

[woman singing in foreign language] But the greatest rainforest of them all is in South America.

The Amazon, the largest river in the world, drains a rainforest that stretches from the Andes to the Atlantic across almost the entire continent.

But even the mighty Amazon can't drain away all the rain that falls in the wet season.

The river spills out over the land and as the forest meets the river, the trees are invaded by fish.

But many of the trees here depend on these fish to disperse their seeds.

Pacu are giant relatives of piranha, but these fish eat fruit.

And as they feed, they carry the seeds away from where they fell.

To the north, rainforest cloaks much of central America.

For Mayan farmers here getting enough rain wouldn't seem to be a problem, but it isn't that simple.

The right amount of rain must fall at just the right time.

[serene music] Rain is a powerful force of nature, a living entity, a God.

The image of the Mayan rain God, Chaac, is carved hundreds of times on this temple wall.

[serene music continues] [woman singing in foreign language] Rain gods hold the power of life and death.

[thunder rumbling] [serene music] Tlaloc, the rain God of the Aztecs, is still honored today.

The Totonac Indians of Mexico go to great lengths to please him.

In the hope that he will water their crops, they perform spectacular rituals.

[energetic music] Four men representing the four directions from which Tlaloc sends the weather fly to earth like the rain itself.

These clouds drop all their rain on the tropical rainforests, but the air masses that carry the rain clouds are still rising.

Eventually they bump into the upper atmosphere and flow away from the equator.

A thousand miles from the equator they start to descend again, now completely dry and warming up.

The hot dry air sucks the moisture out of the land and creates deserts.

All around the globe on either side of the rainforest belt lie the great deserts of the world.

The Gobi, the Namib, the Mojave, the Kalahari.

This is a landscape shaped by the wind.

In places, the wind exposes the bare bones of the earth itself.

In the American southwest, the vivid colors of the rocks give this place its name, the Painted Desert.

But the greatest desert in the world is the Sahara stretching more than 3,000 miles across North Africa.

Nothing could be more of a contrast to the rainforest, yet people have also lived here for centuries.

Like the wind itself, Tuareg nomads are always on the move traveling from oasis to oasis relying on camels for their transport and camels are the supreme desert creatures.

Their splayed feet help them walk on the shifting sands.

Life here is a constant battle against the wind.

It whips up the sand into vicious sand storms that tear across the desert.

[wind rustling] Camels can cope with the sand.

They have long eyelashes to protect their eyes.

People must protect themselves as best they can.

Desert life seems harsh, but in most deserts of the world there is enough precious water for life to keep a hold.

It's just a matter of living with the heat and dust.

But there's one desert in the American West where it seems nothing should be able to live.

This is the floor of Death Valley, 250 feet below sea level.

Here it reaches 125 degrees in the shade.

Occasional flows of water just evaporate leaving beds of salt.

Yet there is water here.

In just a few places water wells up from underground springs.

And one of the few creatures really at home here is the least expected.

A fish.

The Death Valley pupfish.

It's found only in these isolated pools.

This is the whole universe for a pupfish.

[lonely acoustic music] For the deserts around this searing valley, spring and summer bring thunderstorms that hold the promise of rain.

[man vocalizing] [coyotes howling] [coyote howling] [man singing in foreign language] Sometimes the promise is fulfilled.

[thunder crashing] [rain pattering] [inspiring music] Rain brings an explosion of life.

[woman vocalizing] [uplifting music] As the water soaks in, the desert is painted with new colors.

[uplifting music continues] [woman vocalizing] Desert annuals grow and flower in a matter of weeks.

The sinking air that creates the desert hasn't yet finished its journey.

It blows back along the earth's surface toward the equator as constant steady winds.

Then these winds are twisted by the rotation of the earth so they blow back toward the equator from the eastern side of the ocean.

Blowing over warm seas once again, the winds pick up moisture.

These winds are so reliable they were exploited by the merchants and explorers on their long journeys.

The crews gave them their name, the trade winds.

Albatross also ride the trade winds for thousands of miles around the Pacific.

The Pacific covers half the globe.

Sailing across could take months, plenty of time for the trade winds to gather all the moisture they could hold.

[wood creaking] But dotted throughout the Pacific are islands, tiny specs of land in the vastness of the ocean, and where these islands lie in the path of the trade winds, once again the air is forced upwards, cools, and the moisture is turned into rain clouds.

This is Hawaii, an island chain with peaks reaching 14,000 feet out of the ocean.

When the trade winds meet such huge mountains, they release their moisture.

On the windward side of all the islands, the northeast side, there's so much rain, it creates rainforest.

[birds chirping] The same winds that bring the rain brought life to the islands.

These fruit flies are all descended from one ancestor that arrived here on the wind.

Because the islands are so isolated, evolution had a field day.

The fruit flies evolved into 600 different species, all exclusive to Hawaii.

Each has its own distinctive pattern and its own style of fighting.

Hawaii is also a battleground between bigger forces between wind and water and earth and fire.

The Hawaiian chain was created by volcanoes.

And the big island, the island of Hawaii itself, is still very much alive.

The volcano of Kilauea pours lava into the sea creating enormous plumes of deadly hydrochloric acid as it reacts with the sea water.

This is the largest single volcano on the planet.

[volcano rumbling] [water sizzling] And the big island is still growing.

Earth and fire overcome the forces of wind and water as the island rises out of the sea.

[woman vocalizing] To native Hawaiians, the lava flow from the volcano is created by a goddess, unpredictable, moody, temperamental.

The fire goddess, Pele.

[contemplative music] At the other end of the Hawaiian chain is Kauai, an island not of fire, but of water.

This is the realm of Namaka, the goddess of the sea.

The volcanoes of Pele once burned here but Pele was driven away from Kauai by her sister goddess.

Kauai is now an extinct volcano, an island that has succumbed to the power of water.

The trade winds bring 40 feet of rain here each year making Kauai one of the wettest places on earth.

Without Pele's presence, it's now being eaten away, eroded by wind and water into dramatic landscapes.

These razor-edged cliffs of the Nepali coast reach up 3,000 feet from the sea.

And as the island is slowly returned to Namaka the sea goddess, it will become like the islands further along the chain.

Once a huge volcanic mountain, Midway Island is a small flat dot of land in the middle of the ocean.

[waves crashing] [albatross trilling] Now it belongs to the albatross.

In the path of the winds and eaten away by the sea, Midway Island is disappearing below the waves.

Albatross come here because it is so flat.

Graceful in the air, they're not so elegant when it comes to landing.

[albatross trilling] They come here to nest.

This is the only time that these birds of the wind will touch land.

[albatross trilling] They are the spirit of wind and water.

The ghost of sailors lost at sea.

[inspiring music] [men vocalizing] As they leave Midway behind, they soar over a chain of sea mounts, ancient Hawaiian islands now eroded far below the surface completely reclaimed by Namaka.

This hidden island chain stretches across half the Pacific.

[inspiring music continues] [man vocalizing] The winds that blow over this vast ocean push the water into huge waves.

[waves crashing] [inspiring music continues] [women vocalizing] As the winds move over the sea, they do more than just produce waves.

They drive the water into huge circulating currents.

The most famous and the first to be mapped is in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf Stream.

A current of warm water flowing northward along the east coast of America.

John Cabot, the explorer, was among the first to encounter this great current.

His crew kept their beer in the bottom of the hold to keep it cold.

But sailing across the Atlantic, they found to their dismay that beer had turned sour.

They had crossed into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

Ships from Europe that sailed west on the trade winds, could ride the Gulf Stream east to go home.

Warm water that begins its journey in the Gulf of Mexico sweeps past Florida at five miles per hour.

Hitching a ride on the Gulf Stream could save two weeks on a return journey from the Americas to Europe.

And humans aren't alone in riding the Gulf Stream.

This floating seaweed, sargassum, is the only plant that actually migrates.

Rafts of this seaweed drift on the circulating currents of the Atlantic.

Living within these rafts of sargassum are an assortment of bizarre creatures disguised to look like the seaweed.

Toadfish, sea slugs, crabs have all adopted the same color scheme.

The toadfish uses its disguise to stalk the seaweed for smaller fish.

Big ocean predators like dolphin fish, dorado, come here for the same reason.

Hordes of small fish also shelter here.

Sargassum rafts might be the only place to hide in the open sea, but they don't guarantee safety.

The sargassum weed and its passengers just drift round and round with the circulating Atlantic currents.

But as the warm Gulf Stream sweeps further north, it meets the cold Labrador Current off the eastern coast of Canada, and the different waters swirl and mix together.

In the shallow waters of the Grand Banks, the mixing currents churn up nutrients from the sea bed.

The result is fertile water that supports huge numbers of fish.

Capelin thrive in these waters.

In the summer, millions of them throw themselves onto the beach to spawn to leave their eggs out of reach of ocean predators.

[waves crashing] Many of them will be stranded and die but many others will escape back into the water, probably to become food for larger fish or sea birds.

[birds squawking] There was a time when these were some of the biggest seabird colonies in the world but their numbers were decimated by those first sailors and fishermen who slaughtered them as food for their return journey to Europe.

A few colonies remain like this gannet colony in Newfoundland, still supported by the rich seas of the Grand Banks.

[birds squawking] Just as warm and cold water meet here, so too do warm and cold air.

While they mingle, the world all but disappears into fog.

[boat horn blaring] Inside fog banks, warm air rises and storms are born.

[uneasy music] A raging vortex of wind and water tracks eastward across the Atlantic toward Europe.

Building in strength, it bears down on the Irish coast.

[dramatic violin music] [woman vocalizing] [waves crashing] The violence of such storms can be unpredictable.

In 1987, one especially severe gale took the British Isles completely by surprise.

[wind rustling] On October 15th, wind and rain battered the country.

[rain pattering] A day of deluge would be followed by a night of disaster.

Not even the weather forecasters knew what was about to hit Britain.

Winds were recorded at over 110 miles per hour.

[wind rustling] [rain pattering] [branches crashing] The terrible aftermath was revealed the next morning.

15 million trees had been flattened in the worst storm since 1703.

The English counties of Sussex, Kent, and Surrey were devastated.

19 people died.

Although the British Isles are often battered by storms, they're usually free of bitterly cold weather or heavy snow.

[waves crashing] [serene music] The warm Gulf Stream crosses the entire North Atlantic.

It keeps western Europe much warmer than other places that are just as far north.

[birds squawking] As the Gulf Stream brushes the western coast of Ireland, it creates conditions found nowhere else in northern Europe.

[serene music continues] The ancient oak forests of Killarney are damp and warm.

Trees, boulders, logs, everything is covered in brilliant emerald moss.

It's just right for a creature that otherwise lives only in Southern Europe, the Kerry spotted slug.

This slug is here simply because of the Gulf Stream.

The huge sweep of tropical water keeps a few square miles of Killarney warm enough for the slugs to flourish.

[serene music] [woman vocalizing] But it's never long before the next Atlantic storm arrives because storms are steered in this direction by currents of air high in the atmosphere.

[serene music continues] [woman vocalizing] Clouds, rain, storms, wind, all our weather as we know it, takes place in the lower part of the atmosphere.

But rise above these clouds and the atmosphere is very different.

Instead of the turmoil of storm clouds, there are narrow fast streams of wind blowing at over 180 miles per hour.

The jet streams.

Just as the ancient sailing ships rode the trade winds, modern airliners use the jet streams to speed up their journeys.

[airplane whooshing] Because of the rotation of the earth, the jet streams blow towards the east.

Flying from America to Europe takes an hour less than flying from Europe to America.

Back across the North American continent, a rich cold current flows south along the California coast.

[waves crashing] The current churns up nutrients from the sea bed turning the sea off California into a kaleidoscope of marine life.

In this cold water, sea otters dive for food, shellfish, through huge forests of kelp.

Kelp reaches all the way from the sea bed to the surface, sometimes as much as 200 feet.

To do so, it can grow up to two feet a day.

For a sea otter, finding food in these rich waters is easy.

The hard part is cracking an abalone shell against the stone that's balanced precariously on his chest in a rough sea.

Sometimes sea otters have company for dinner.

Cormorants seem to know that sea otters might disturb fish as they search around for their own food.

[birds squawking] The cold water supports the forests of giant kelp in the sea but it also supports forests of giant trees on the land.

[gentle music] [woman vocalizing] Cool temperate rainforests of massive pine, fir, spruce, and redwood.

As the warm moist air from the open ocean blows over the cold water near the coast, it produces fog and rain, enough water to maintain these rain forests along a narrow strip of coast from California to Alaska.

[woman vocalizing] The cold California current also makes it possible to harness the wind.

Away from the coast, California is hot and dry.

The sun heats the ground during the morning which warms the air above it and gradually this warm air starts to rise.

Cold air flows in from the coast to replace it and by midday, a constant westerly wind is blowing.

This wind funneled through the Altamont Valley near San Francisco is steady, reliable, predictable, which makes this the perfect place for over 3,000 windmills.

It's hard to imagine the power of the winds that blow over the face of the earth but even a gentle breeze can provide enough energy to power an entire city.

[windmills whooshing] But there is one place where the wind rarely blows.

Around the equator, there's a belt of sea where the air is deadly calm.

The doldrums.

Sailing ships trying to cross the equator could be stranded here for weeks in sweltering human conditions, driving the crew insane.

On the edge of the doldrums, the warm sea causes the air above it to rise quickly, sucking more air in behind it.

Sometimes as this whole system starts to spin, a monster is born.

A tropical depression, a huge rotating storm, bringing strong winds, torrential rain, and thunderstorms.

- [Reporter] Today, August 17th, the first tropical storm of the 1992 season, tropical storm Andrew, is developing in the East Atlantic.

It's currently tracking due west and is expected to turn to the northwest within 24 hours.

- [Narrator] The Caribbean takes the brunt of many of the storms that are born in the Atlantic.

And until the last few decades, there was little warning of their arrival.

[birds squawking] The only clue came from the birds.

Native people noticed that sooty terns nesting on the beaches would suddenly abandon their colonies.

If they did, people guessed a storm was on its way.

[birds squawking] All over the Caribbean and Central America a tropical storm was a powerful living being.

The God of strong winds was Ehecatl.

The Spanish conquerors gave his name to the most violent form of tropical storm, the hurricane.

- [Reporter] As from today, August 22nd, tropical storm Andrew is upgraded to a hurricane.

It is now tracking directly west and gaining strength.

A hurricane watch is posted for the northwest Bahamas from Andros to- - [Narrator] A hurricane, the most powerful force on the planet.

Given life by the warm tropical ocean, hundreds of miles across, the winds are strongest at the center around the eye.

- [Reporter] The hurricane watch posted for the east coast of Florida has now been upgraded.

A hurricane warning is enforced for the southeast coast of Florida.

- [Narrator] A hurricane can bring winds that blow at well over a hundred miles an hour and it will hit with the equivalent power of 20 nuclear explosions every hour.

- [Reporter] Sunday, August 23rd.

Hurricane Andrew is now a category four hurricane and has reached the North Bahamas.

Wind speeds of 150 miles per hour have been measured and a storm surge is estimated at 16 feet.

- [Narrator] It will devastate everything in its path.

[uneasy music] [woman vocalizing] On the evening of Saturday, August 23rd, 1992 the hurricane watch posted for Florida's west coast was stepped up to a hurricane warning.

Along with the birds, the people had just one option.

Evacuate.

[rousing music] On Sunday the 24th, over a million people abandoned South Florida and headed north to safety.

[car horns honking] At 3:00 AM on the morning of the 25th, Hurricane Andrew slammed into the coast just south of Miami.

[wind roaring] Andrew cut a swath of destruction 30 miles wide across south Florida with sustained winds of 145 miles per hour.

[wind roaring] [metal sign clattering] [wind roaring] Its trail of devastation was unbelievable.

In cash terms, this was the most destructive hurricane in US history.

There were 350,000 homes in Andrew's path.

The town of Homestead was completely destroyed.

- [Reporter] Hurricane Andrew has passed over the southern half of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico where it's now heading for the coast of Louisiana.

It's now a category three hurricane and a hurricane warning is still in place for the northern Gulf Coast.

[thunder crashing] - [Narrator] Over land cut off from the warm ocean, a hurricane dies in a last flurry of thunderstorms.

But over the flat planes of the central United States, the moving warm air collides with cold air moving down from the north.

This can produce violent, spinning vortexes.

And when one of these vortexes touches the ground, it creates a monster that's dangerous, unpredictable, and personal.

A tornado.

A finger of chaos reaches down to the earth and annihilates everything it touches.

[wind roaring] The strongest tornado can pack as much energy as a hurricane, but, whereas a hurricane is hundreds of miles across, a tornado is focused into just a few hundred feet.

[wind roaring] We only notice the forces of wind and water when they create havoc.

But these storms are the safety valves in the wind and water system releasing excess energy.

They're part of the smooth running of our world.

[wind roaring] Without the breath of the wind and the flow of water, Earth as we know it simply wouldn't exist.

These two great forces set life on its course and carry it along its way.

[serene music] [woman vocalizing] Next time on "Forces of the Wild".

Nature's clock ticks to the rhythm of the sun and moon.

[geese squawking] No living creature can escape the influence of the heavenly partners.

[pleasant acoustic music] [adventurous music] [chiming music]