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Physical Geography AQA > Tropical Storms 🌪 > Flashcards

Tropical Storms 🌪 Flashcards

1
Q

Tropical storms

A

A violent rotating storm

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2
Q

Reason for mid latitude location

A
  • Warm climate necessary for hot surface water of 27C to provide energy
  • Low wind shear preventing hot air to dissipate
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3
Q

Sandy timeline

A
  1. October 2012
  2. Low wind shear and water above average temp for the year
  3. Eye moved north - diameter of 1100 miles
  4. Course shifted 8 days before landfall, moving left towards US, due to cold air and low pressure in Greenland, eastward jet stream
  5. Pushed storm to warmer coastal waters combined with full moon, increasing potential storm surge
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4
Q

Sandy social effects 7

A
  • 111 deaths
  • 24 states effected
  • 75% NY isolated with no power
  • 4% had to be rehoused
  • looting
  • queues for fuel
  • 3% still homeless after a year
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5
Q

Sandy political effects

A
  • Occurred weeks before 2012 election
  • Increased pressure to address climate change
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6
Q

Sandy economic effects

A
  • $63 billion in damages
  • Energy Grid damaged
  • NYSE closed
  • Loss of economic activity
  • Loss of water supply and phone lines
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7
Q

Sandy environmental effects 4

A
  • Poor air quality
  • Water pollution
  • Trees uprooted
  • Sewage leaks / overflow
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8
Q

Sandy short term responses 6

A
  • 1 million forced to evacuate
  • 17.5 million meals given by Red Cross
  • 7 million kits of medical supplies
  • 11000 sheltered
  • National guard deployed
  • Course of the hurricane confused efforts
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9
Q

Sandy long term responses

A
  • 23000 people and businesses given assistance
  • $10 billion to respond with $50 billion to rebuild
  • Accusations of misallocation of Red Cross supplies pulling PR stunts
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10
Q

Hurricane prediction

A
  • Only occur at certain times of year
  • Tracking by air = limited scale / prediction
  • Satellites = birds eye view, determine path, track storm
  • Supercomputer = can predict paths and guide response, needs constant data
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11
Q

Hurricane scale of magnitude

A

Saffir-Simpson scale 1 to 5 based on wind speed

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12
Q

Why is monitoring hurricanes beneficial

A

People can evacuate sooner reducing potential deaths, and those at risk understand potential of storm and can prepare

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13
Q

Why use Saffire-Simpson scale

A

Easy to compare magnitude of events and categorise as well as compare outcomes

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14
Q

Tropical storm hazards 5

A
  • Strong winds
  • Heavy rainfall
  • Storm surges
  • River flooding
  • Landslides
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15
Q

Storm surge

A
  • Rise in sea level that occurs during tropical storms with strong winds pushing water to shore
  • Form when low pressure at centre of storm lifts the water up (rises by 1cm for every millibar of pressure)
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16
Q

Strong Winds

A
  • Form when air rises and cools causing it to condense and form clouds
  • Difference in gradient between centre and higher pressures not far away causes air to rush away to lo pressure
17
Q

Wildfire

A

Any rural fire which is uncontrolled and spreading

18
Q

Factors for wildfires occurring

A
  • Fuel = Oil spills, fossil fuels, dry vegetation
  • Oxygen
  • Heat = Sunlight, BBQ, lightning, fireworks
  • Wind accelerates spread
19
Q

El Nino phenomenon

A

A time of abnormal weather that occurs approximately every 2-7 years.
Warm water shifts to the east, leading to abnormally drier and warmer temperatures with plants drier

20
Q

Why was Australia susceptible to wildfires in 2019/20

A
  • El Nino
  • Warmer temperatures lead to dryer conditions, reduced humidity and dried plants
  • Rural land largely flat shrubs for fires to spread with fences to fuel
21
Q

Wildfire behaviour

A
  • Radiation = heat causing combustion
  • Connection = similar to radiation but upwards
  • Conduction = Occurs when flames are in direct contact with another fuel
22
Q

What affects wildfire behaviour

A
  • Weather = most influential, no control, can change rapidly, wind can carry embers
  • Topography = slope of area affects speed of spread, faster uphill
  • Fuel = Most preventable significant factor in long term existence
23
Q

Ladder fuels

A

Combustible materials that aid the spread of fire from the surface to the upper canopy, making fire harder to fight and easy for embers to fly

24
Q

Causes of wildfires

A

99% due to human activity - lightning exception

25
Q

Australia 2019/20 key info

A
  • 12.4 million acres of land burnt - equivalent to Portugal
  • Worst wildfire the country has ever seen
  • Lasted for 210 days across the whole country
  • Travelled 500km
26
Q

Areas affected by Australia wildfires

A
  • Affected all of coast, primarily East coast
  • Reached the main cities of Sydney and Melbourne but NSW worst affected
27
Q

Causes of Australia wildfire

A
  • Strong El Nino
  • Dry lightning
  • 20 suspected arsonists
28
Q

Aussie wildfire social impacts 6

A
  • 34 died
  • 414 injured
  • 2000 homes destroyed
  • 7000 people displaced
  • 440 died from respiratory issues
  • Air pollution affected cities
29
Q

Aussie wildfire environmental impacts 6

A
  • Loss of one billion organisms
  • 100 billion insects
  • Range for animals to scavenge reduced by 30%
  • 700 species at risk of extinction
  • Waterways polluted
  • Algae blooms due to more nutrients in water
30
Q

Aussie wildfire economic impacts 5

A
  • Mining industry faced criticism for role in climate change
  • 2.45 million hectares of agricultural land lost
  • Livestock killed
  • $70 billion in damages
    -Disrupted Christmas period ->tourism
31
Q

Aussie wildfire political impacts

A
  • Put greater pressure on ‘climate change denying’ Australian government
  • Calls for PM to resign
32
Q

Aussie wildfire short term responses 7

A
  • International support $326 million donated
  • Aid in the form of personnel to advise or fight fires
  • Support limited due to Australia’s geographical isolation
  • Water bombing, water cannons, ditches dug, controlled burning
  • Military deployed to repair 1000km of fences, 10 million litres of water purified, 77000 meals given
    -15000 volunteer firefighters
  • Fire so large couldn’t be extinguished
33
Q

Aussie wildfire long term responses

A
  • Australian government pledged $1.4 billion to support affected industries
  • $50 million given to help forest regenration

Physical Geography AQA (12 decks)

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