Tropical storms Flashcards

1
Q

What are the different names for tropical storms in each region of the world?

A
  • Hurricanes: Atlantic + NE pacific
  • Typhoon: NW Pacific
  • Cyclone: SW Pacific + Indian
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2
Q

What direction do tropical storms turn in which hemisphere?

A
  • Northern hemisphere: clockwise
  • Southern hemisphere: anticlockwise
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3
Q

What is the effect called that causes tropical storms to turn in different directions in different hemispheres?

A

The Coriolis effect

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4
Q

Why does the Coriolis effect occur?

A

The Earth’s rotation

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5
Q

What cell do tropical storms occur in?

A

Hadley

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6
Q

What are the conditions for a tropical storm to form?

A
  • Warm water (26.5°C+)
  • Usually in late summer or autumn (when water is warm)
  • Low air pressure
  • Weak tropical winds
  • Occurs in the tropics
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7
Q

What is the centre of a tropical storm called?

A

The eye

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8
Q

What happens to air in the eye?

A

It descends

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9
Q

Where are wind speeds fastest?

A

Eye wall

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10
Q

How does climate change affect tropical storms?

A
  • Due to increasing ocean temperatures, frequency of tropical storms is predicted to increase.
  • These warmer waters would also mean tropical storms would extend further away from the equator.
  • Rising sea levels would cause increased flooding in low-lying coastal areas.
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11
Q

What is the key study for tropical storms?

A

Typhoon Haiyan

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12
Q

Where was Typhoon Haiyan?

A

The Philippines

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13
Q

What part of the Philippines was worst affected?

A

Tacloban

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14
Q

When did Typhoon Haiyan make landfall?

A

7th November 2013 around 8:40am

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15
Q

What were the recorded windspeeds?

A

313 km/h, making it one of the strongest tropical storms ever recorded

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16
Q

How much rainfall was recorded?

A

282mm

17
Q

Why was The Philippines so badly affected?

A

The Philippines is a relatively poor country, with minimal investment in planning, prediction, and protection schemes.

18
Q

What were the 3 types of effects?

A
  • Economic
  • Social
  • Envionmental
19
Q

What were the economic impacts of Haiyan?

A
  • Estimated cost of $5.8bn
  • 6M people unemployed
  • Agricultural areas were destroyed, affecting local and international trade
  • Tacloban’s airport was damaged, affecting trade and tourism
  • 30,000 boats were destroyed, affecting the fishing industry
20
Q

What were the social effects of Haiyan?

A
  • 7000 deaths
  • 1.9m left homeless
  • 6m displaced
  • Disease outbreaks due to lack of sanitation, food, water, shelter, and medicine.
  • Populations of less affected areas surged as there was an influx of refugees.
  • Widespread looting took place in the days after.
21
Q

What were the environmental effects of Haiyan?

A
  • Widespread flooding
  • 71k hectares of farmland affected
  • Thousands of trees uprooted, releasing CO2 and destroying habitats.
  • Roads were blocked by trees
  • Flooding knocked over a barge carrying oil, causing an oil spill that affected mangrove ecosystems.
  • 6m storm surge hit Tacloban bay
  • The funnel shape of the bay increased the height of the storm surge.
22
Q

What were the immediate responses?

A
  • 750,000 residents were evacuated before the typhoon hit.
  • The Philippines asked for international help.
  • The UK government provided aid for up to 800,000 victims.
  • Several charities provided emergency aid.
23
Q

What were the long term responses?

A
  • Helping people get their livelihoods back (repairing boats, distributing seeds)
  • Charities installed water tanks
  • The Philippines invested in disaster risk reduction, costing $648m in 2011.
  • The UN donated $480m in 2014
24
Q

How are tropical storms predicted?

A
  • Forecasting centres use satellite images, weather instruments, and computer predictions to detect and track tropical storms.
  • Warnings are issued to places likely to be in the storms path.
  • Reinforced aircraft fly through and over tropical storms to collect data, which can be used to track and predict the storm.