Tropical storms

You'll find information on the causes of tropical sorms, formation of tropical storms and the impacts as well as reducing them. 

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Tropical storm causes and distrubution

Distrubution of tropical storms

  • They occur in between the tropics but not near the equator, they occur within the tropic of cancer and capricon. 

causes of tropical stroms

  • Tropical storms develop over warm water, thats 27oC or higher
  • the conditions which are needed for a really powerful storm are: warm,moist air and condensation which releases a huge amount of energy
  • They occur between 5oC and 30oC north and south of the equator e.g in the Atlantic and Indian ocean (Any further than that water is,t warm enough)
  • The Earth rotation deflects the path of the wind, which causes them to spin.
  • They move west because of the easterly winds near the equator.

Storm surge is simply water that is pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds swirling around the storm

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formation of tropical storms

1) Thunderstorms begin to form

2) with sea surface temperature over 27oC, warm air rises and starts to spin

3)more warm air rises due to the earths rotation (coriolis force) , it starts to move in a spiral. It cools, condenses, forming clouds.

4) When the tropical storm moves over land, it loses its source of energy and weakens

5) When the tropical storm moves over the ocean, it picks up more warm moist air and grows in size. 

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Classifying hurricanes

Once a cyclone has reached winds of 39mph it's then known as a tropical storm, lower than that it's known as a tropical depression. If it reaches 79mph it's then called a hurricane. 

Hurricanes are classified from Category 1-5 ( using the saffir-simpson wind scale) does not undertake the impact of storm surges, tornadoes etc

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Impacts of tropical storms

Primary impacts

  • people drown, or they're injured or killed by debris that's blown around
  • Sewage overflowsdue to flooding. the sewage often contaminates water supplies
  • Heavy rain makes hills unstable, causing landslides.

secondary impacts

  • people are left homeless
  • There's a shortage of food because crops are damaged and livestock has died. 
  • People may suffer psychological problems if they knew people who died. 

The more settlements built and businesses set up in an area, the grater the impact because there are more people and properties to be affected by a storm.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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