Geography: Tropical Storms

Causes of tropical storms
1. They start with hurricanes over the sea at a temperature of at least 27 C
  1. The warm air from the sea combines with the warm air from the thunderstorm and this warm air rises
    1. Due to the Earth's rotation, the storm starts to move in a spiral. The direction of the spiral depends on which hemisphere it occurs in.
      1. The warm air forms clouds when it cools and condenses. The cooler air is sucked downwards as the wind speed starts to increase.
        The tropical storm then moves over the ocean in a westerly direction because of the spin of the earth from east to west.
      2. Coriolis effect
        In the northern hemisphere the tropical storms spin in an anti-clockwise direction and in the southern hemisphere they spin in a clockwise direction.
2. Tropical storms are areas of low pressure that are surrounded by high pressure which then cause huge swirling masses of clouds
Effects of Tropical Storms
1. Primary Effects
  1. Tropical Storm Haiyan (2013, Philippines)
    1. Destroyed buildings
    2. No standing structures a kilometer inland
    3. Houses flattened
  2. Hurricane Sandy (2012,USA)
    1. Crops destroyed
    2. 69 Deaths in the Caribbean
2. Secondary Effects
  1. Nearly a million people without power
    1. Petrol rationed
    2. Spread of Cholera in flooded areas
    3. Local people homeless
  2. Little food, no clean water, no electricity
    1. Roads Blocked
    2. Deaths from drowning
    3. Wide spread looting
Reducing the Damage of Tropical Storms
1. Forecast
  1. Prepare
    1. Act
      1. Evacuation plans put in place
    2. Education programmes to raise awareness on preparing and responding to a tropical storm, school lessons and posters can be used to spread awareness
      1. In some areas buildings are designed and built to withstand tropical storms with features such as water resistant windows and windproof tiles.
        In less developed countries they can't afford to develop buildings so they use other methods to prepare such as:
        Educating women what to wear in case they have to swim
        Building homes on stilts
        Building cyclone shelters
  2. Forecasts made by the National Hurricane Warning Centre (Atlantic)
    1. Typhoon Warning Centre (Pacific)
    2. Forecasts are available on the internet so that anyone within the cone of uncertainty can prepare for the worst
      1. The speed and path of a tropical storm can be affected by many different factors so they are hard to predict
More tropical storms to come?
1. There is disagreement to whether the number of tropical storms is changing
  1. Satellites were only used to monitor tropical storms since the 1960s so the number might have not been accurate before then
    1. Natural Cycle could mean that the amount of tropical storms reduces again soon when it gets to the end of the cycle.
  2. Number of tropical storms has doubled in the last 100 years
    1. Global warming means the surface of the ocean have warmed up by 0.5 C
    2. Since 1195 hurricanes have become more frequent and intense.
    3. Short-term changes to the number of tropical storms may not be due to the actions of people

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Geography: Tropical Storms

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