Windstorms Flashcards
What descriptive words are used to describe windstorms?
Hurricane
Cyclone
Typhoon
What is the definition of windstorms/hurricane/cyclone/typhoon?
Intense low pressure systems involving wind speeds up to 140mph (or 220km/hr) and gusting up to 160mph (220km/hr).
Where do windstorms /hurricane/typhoon/cyclone) occur?
Atlantic
Pacific
Indian Oceans
Generally, where does these storms start?
Within 5 degrees of the equator and take a westerly track while turning slowly towards the North or South Pole and, in some cases, even turn back on themselves.
How dangerous are storms (hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones)?
They are inherently dangerous and the science behind predicting the path they will follow has still a way to go before it is 100% accurate.
What does the wind speeds involved produce?
Huge waves, often breaking, capable of dumping hundreds of tons of water on boards a ship unlucky enough to find itself in the midst of such a storm.
The combination of wind and waves is one of the most treacherous a Master of a ship has to face
Because it can not only threaten the watertight integrity of the ship, but also its stability, particularly if it is carrying a cargo which is likely to shift in the extreme conditions.
Weather conditions of this severity are described as what?
Perils of the sea and can afford defence to cargo claims that are caused by them.
As early as 1704, which celebrated writer described a storm that visited the British Isles in the previous November using a 12 point scale that he called a table of degrees?
Daniel Defoe
What did Daniel Defoe refer to the scale as being?
The “bald terms used by our sailors”.
Who devised the scale (table of degrees by Daniel Defoe?
Francis Beaufort.
What is the name of the vessel Francis Beaufort served when he devised the 12 point scale that was called the table of degrees?
HMS Woolwich in 1805.
(As early as 1704, Daniel Defoe described the storm that visited the British Isles in November 1703.)
In what year did he rise to become a hydrographer of the British Royal Navy?
1829 (24 years after he served on the HMS Woolwich and devised the Beaufort scale.).
In 1831 Francis Beaufort commissioned the famous voyage of which vessel on which Charles Darwin sailed?
The Beagle.
In 1838 the Royal Navy first instructed its ships to do what?
To maintain hourly information on wind speed and direction within their logs.
