Hurricanes are huge with high winds. The exception is the relatively calm eye of the storm where air is rising upward. Rainfall can be as high as 2.
The release of latent heat generates enormous amounts of energy, nearly the total annual electrical power consumption of the United States from one storm. Hurricanes can also generate tornadoes. Hurricanes are strange creatures because they are deadly monsters, yet have a gentle, but cold heart. The anatomy of a hurricane is fairly simple, though the processes involved are quite complex. As a low pressure disturbance forms, the warm, moist air rushes towards the low pressure in order to rise upward to form towering thunderstorms.
Around the low pressure disturbance is a wall of clouds called an eye wall. Within the eye wall, the wind speeds are greatest, the clouds are the tallest, atmospheric pressure is at its lowest, and precipitation is most intense. At the center or heart of the hurricane is called the eye.
Within the eye of a hurricane, winds are light, precipitation is minimal, and occasionally the skies above are clear. It is the calm region of the tropical storm, but that is what makes it so dangerous. Many people tend to go outside as the eye moves overhead because they believe the storm is over.
These rain bands are the first. Hurricanes are assigned to categories based on their wind speed. The categories are listed on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. Hurricanes move with the prevailing winds. In the Northern Hemisphere, they originate in the trade winds and move to the west. When they reach the latitude of the westerlies, they switch direction and travel toward the north or northeast.
Hurricanes may cover km miles in one day. Damage from hurricanes comes from the high winds, rainfall, and storm surge. Flooding can be devastating, especially along low-lying coastlines such as the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Hurricane Camille in had a 7. Hurricanes typically last for 5 to 10 days. When a hurricane disintegrates, it is replaced with intense rains and tornadoes. There are about hurricanes around the world each year, plus many smaller tropical storms and tropical depressions.
As people develop coastal regions, property damage from storms continues to rise. A cyclone is a general term for a weather system in which winds rotate inwardly to an area of low atmospheric pressure.
For large weather systems, the circulation pattern is in a counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. A tropical cyclone is a rotating low-pressure weather system that has organized thunderstorms but no fronts. They form over warm ocean waters. Tropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of less than 39 mph are called tropical depressions.
Those with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph or higher are called tropical storms. Mesocyclones can be simply understood as a vortex of air caged between the convective storm.
Such tornadoes are often cyclonic and happen with updrafts in the supercell. When the funnel cloud touches the ground, then it becomes a tornado.
Yearly, thousands of Mesocyclones are formed, out of which only half of them get converted into cyclones. They are generally ignited by the air over the mildly warm ocean water.
Polar Lows are often referred to as the Arctic Hurricanes by meteorologists in the Northern Hemisphere. The major reason behind this reference is because of the energy source, i. Along with this, their circular cloud bands fairly resemble the tropical cyclones. Generally, Polar Lows are formed within a period of 24 hours and are difficult to predict. Out of all the types of cyclones, Hurricanes are commonly known as Typhoons. The cyclonic storms that are formed nearby the frontal boundaries in the middle latitudes thus they are known as the midlatitude or the extratropical cyclones.
Unlike the tropical counterparts of these cyclones, such type of cyclones are formed where the sharp temperature gradients occur between the connecting air masses. Midlatitude Cyclones are often larger than the usual hurricanes though their winds are weak. Studying for UPSC exams? Thus, we hope that this blog about types of cyclones has helped you gain insights on this topic.
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