Tropical storms Flashcards
Where do tropical storms develop?
Between Tropics or Capricorn and the Tropics of Cancer
When do they occur?
When tropical air rises to create an area of very low pressure.
Describe the global distribution of storms
Occur in the tropics of cancer and capricorn
occur over the major oceans
Don’t get them in the South Atlantic
Don’t get them exactly on the equator.
What are the conditions needed to create a tropical storm?
temp = 27 degrees
season = summer and winter (when seas are warm)
Latitude = 8-20 N and South of equator
What is the formation of tropical storms.
Sun warms the ocean to 27 degrees causing evaporation.
The wet warm air rises rapidly causing low pressure conditions.
As the air rises it cools and condenses creating large cumulonimbus clouds.
The coriolus effect causes the air to spin upwards - some cooled air sinks back down to create a calm central eye.
Air rushes in from higher pressure to lower pressure creating winds.
What would it be like for a tropical storm to pass over.
- temperature and air pressure fall.
- air pressure falls more, wind increases, lots of cumulonimbus cloud, heavy rainfall.
- Calm, no wind, no rain, gets slightly warmer, air pressure still very low.
- Wind and heavy rainfall increase dramatically again, temperature drops, air pressure begins to rise.
- topical storm ends, air pressure and temperature rise.
What direction do storms travel in?
East to West. When they hit land they lose their energy and friction increases so the storm slows down and decay - becomes less predictable.
Why do tropical storms spin?
The Coriolis effect makes tropical storms spin.
How might climate change affect tropical storms?
Sea levels will rise- storm surges will become even bigger
The atmosphere will become warmer so heavy rainfall will be more common.
How does this affect distribution?
Might affect where they will occur - sometimes in places that hasnt experienced them before like south east coast of brazil due to warm sea temps.
How does this affect frequency?
difficult to predict - will either stay the same or decrease.
How does this affect intensity?
More intense - 2-11% by 2100. 4/5 storms has increased since the 1970’s
