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    Hurricanes: A Survival Guide' Project

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    Priyah Coomarasamy
    Hurricanes form over warm tropical ocean waters and are characterized by intense low pressure systems and strong winds that can exceed 100 km/h. They develop through the release of latent heat in surrounding thunderstorms and take days or weeks to fully form. Hurricanes migrate westward with trade winds before curving northeast and accelerating over 30°N latitude. Global warming is likely increasing hurricane intensity through higher sea surface temperatures, but the impacts on frequency are uncertain due to natural variability and data limitations.

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    Hurricanes: A Survival Guide' Project

    Uploaded by

    Priyah Coomarasamy
    28 views7 pages
    Hurricanes form over warm tropical ocean waters and are characterized by intense low pressure systems and strong winds that can exceed 100 km/h. They develop through the release of latent heat in surrounding thunderstorms and take days or weeks to fully form. Hurricanes migrate westward with trade winds before curving northeast and accelerating over 30°N latitude. Global warming is likely increasing hurricane intensity through higher sea surface temperatures, but the impacts on frequency are uncertain due to natural variability and data limitations.

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    Hurricanes

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    Hurricanes form over warm tropical ocean waters and are characterized by intense low pressure systems and strong winds that can exceed 100 km/h. They develop through the release of latent heat in surrounding thunderstorms and take days or weeks to fully form. Hurricanes migrate westward with trade winds before curving northeast and accelerating over 30°N latitude. Global warming is likely increasing hurricane intensity through higher sea surface temperatures, but the impacts on frequency are uncertain due to natural variability and data limitations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    28 views7 pages

    Hurricanes: A Survival Guide' Project

    Uploaded by

    Priyah Coomarasamy
    Hurricanes form over warm tropical ocean waters and are characterized by intense low pressure systems and strong winds that can exceed 100 km/h. They develop through the release of latent heat in surrounding thunderstorms and take days or weeks to fully form. Hurricanes migrate westward with trade winds before curving northeast and accelerating over 30°N latitude. Global warming is likely increasing hurricane intensity through higher sea surface temperatures, but the impacts on frequency are uncertain due to natural variability and data limitations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 7

    Hurricanes

    A ‘Survival Guide’ Project


    W4400: Dynamics of Climate Variability and Climate Change
    Emily Firth, Bali White
    What are hurricanes?
    (AKA cyclones and typhoons)
    • intense low pressure disturbances 
    • Form, migrate over tropical ocean regions
    • conditions  required:    high  SST  (>  26°C)  and  weak  vertical  wind 
    shears. 
    • intense winds and very strong convective activity
    • ­> thunderstorms and large amounts of rainfall.
    • takes days or a week to form
    • spreads over a radius of a few hundred kilometers. 
    • surrounded by rings of towering thunder clouds spiraling up to a small 
    circle at the center of the storm­­the eye. 
    • winds here can reach a speed of 100+ km/hour  and the most intense 
    rainfall occurs. 
    • inside eye, air is still and convection suppressed by (subsidence). has a 
    radius of 30­40 km. 
    • major damage potential / loss of life when they make landfall.
     Typhoon Durian,
    Philippines Dec 2006
    A regional snapshot

    North Atlantic Ocean


    West Pacific Ocean
    East Pacific Ocean
    North Indian Ocean

    South Indian Ocean SW Pacific Ocean

     This map shows the tracks of all Tropical cyclones which formed worldwide from 1985 to 2005
    Migration of Hurricanes
    • hurricane tracks curve eastward and they speed up north of 
    ~30°N 
    • active  in  the  "trade  wind"  belts  ­  north  or  south  of  the 
    equator where the winds blow steadily from east to west
    • initiated  by  weak  pressure  perturbations  that  exist  in  the 
    tropics.  
    • move west with the trade winds in a steady, relatively slow 
    motion (10­20 km/hour). 
    • intensify  primarily  through  release  of  latent  heat  in 
    surrounding  clouds;  small  percentage  reach  full  hurricane 
    intensity.  
    Global warming and hurricanes
    • Tropical sea surface temperature (SST) increase of 0.25-
    0.5C over past several decades
    • Future projections linking global warming to hurricane
    trends are hotly debated
    • Role of Global Climate Models
    • Uncertainties and limitations
    – Year-to-year and multidecadal variability in SST and hurricane
    activity
    – Variation in historical and regional hurricane data
    – Temporal limitations: reliable satellite data only last 30 years
    Three ‘take home’ points
    • A likely increase in hurricane intensity with rising
    tropical SSTs
    • Regions of hurricane origin likely to remain
    unchanged
    • Uncertainty surrounding impacts of increasing
    SSTs on hurricane frequency
    Useful resources

    • HURDAT: Atlantic basin hurricane database


    www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat

    • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third


    Assessment Report. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis.

    http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.htm

    • Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia


    www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricanes View of the
    eyewall of
    Hurricane Katrina
    taken on Aug 28,
    2005.

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