Climatic Hazards Flashcards
What are the conditions needed for cyclone to form?
- 27 degrees Celsius
- 60m depth of water
- Strong winds 74mph and above
- Between 5 and 30 degrees north and south of equator
Which part of the world experiences the most natural hazards?
Asia- it has the most earthquakes and floods and the highest death toll
Which part of the world has the most droughts?
Africa
What are tropical storms known as in the Americas?
Hurricanes
What are tropical storms known as in the Indian Ocean?
Cyclones
What are tropical storms known as in the Pacific ocean?
Typhoons
How does a tropical storm form?
- Warm moist air rises creating low pressure
- It condenses releasing the latent heat/energy of condensation and form large clouds
- This draws in more warm air and sucks cooler, drier air downwards. Wind speed increases as more air sucked in
- Trade winds hit and storm moves westwards.
- It spins due to Coriolis Effect
What are the features of a tropical storm?
- It has an eye of calm winds where air descends
- Eye is surrounded by Eyewall: spiralling rising air with strongest winds- 160kmph
- Large cumulonimbus clouds and torrential rainfall
- Towards the edges = lower wind speed, smaller clouds and less intense rainfall
- It forms over water
- It spins anticlockwise in north and clockwise in south
Where do tropical storms form?
Between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn
How are tropical storms measured?
Using the Saffire- Simpson scale which goes from one to 5 and is a measure of potential damage to property and loss of life.
Category 3 and higher are considered to be major ones
What are the primary impacts of tropical storms?
- Buildings damaged
- Roads damaged
- Telephone/electricity lines damaged
- Crops damaged
- Water and sewage systems damage and flow in street
- Coastal habitats like mangroves damaged
What are the secondary effects of tropical storms?
- People homeless
- Landslides
- Roads become blocked- aid can’t come in as fast
- Food and clean water shortages
- Flood and contaminated waters ===> cholera etc
Why are the effects greater in LEDCs?
- Houses of poorer quality
- Roads don’t connect to rural areas for evacuation
- More people in LEDCs depend on farming so they have their livelihoods threatened
- Less money to spend on services or protective buildings
- Less access to technology to track and predict
How are the effects of the storms reduced?
- Predict and track their path you know where to evacuate
- Building planning- not building in more risky areas
- Cyclone shelters set up
- Storm proof houses with stilts or fixed roves
- Levees along rivers and sea walls on the coast to stop storm surges
- Provide education and drills etc so they know what to do
- Survival kits provided and made easily accessible
- International aid
Why do people continue to live in storm prone areas?
- They’ve always lived there
- They have family and friends there
- They have job that ties them there
- Storms can be predicted so effects reduced = safer
- Some think they will not be affected
- Some think the technology/ services of the country will protect them from danger
