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UNIT 4 WEATHER RELATED/ COASTAL HAZARDS Structure 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Objectives 4.2 Tropical Cyclones: Hurricane, Typhoon and Cyclones 4.2.1 Classification of Cyclones 4.2.2 Formation of Cyclones 4.3 Thunderstorms 4.3.1 Formation of Thunderstorms 4.4 Tornadoes 4.4.1 Formation of Tornadoes 4.4.2 Tornadoes Destruction 4.5 Introduction to Coastal Hazards 4.6 Introductions to Tsunamis 4.7 El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) 4.8 Let Us Sum Up 4.9 Key Words 4.10 References and Suggested Further Readings 4.11 Answers to Check your Progress 4.0 INTRODUCTION The last few years have seen enormous damage and loss of life from weather related disaster and hazards. A disaster or catastrophe is defined as ‘a situation or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to a national or international level for external assistance, an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction and human suffering’. Nine out of every 10 of these disasters are now climate related. High impact weather events have drastic impacts on society, natural ecosystems and leads great economical and personal damage. Extreme events are of both natural and anthropogenic origin and are of widespread concern mainly because of their damaging consequences. The most damaging weather related hazards or disaster includes tropical cyclones or hurricanes, thunderstorm, tornadoes, coastal storms, tsunami, ElNino, floods etc. This unit will describe tropical cyclones also popularly known as hurricanes or typhoons, thunderstorm, tornadoes, coastal storms, tsunami, and global warming. 65 Natural Hazards 4.1 OBJECTIVES After completing this unit, you will be able to: describe tropical cyclones (Hurricane, Typhoon and Cyclones) and the process of their formation; explain the characteristics and the process of formation of thunderstorm; describe the process of formation of tornadoes and destruction caused by them; and explain Tsunami and El Nino. 4.2 TROPICAL CYCLONES: HURRICANE, TYPHOON AND CYCLONES Tropical region is considered as the region between the Tropic of Cancer (230 North) and the Tropic of the Capricorn (230 South) of the earth. The weather characterized in this region is called tropical weather and Tropical cyclones (TC) are one of the most important tropical weather system and among the most devastating of all natural hazards. Tropical cyclones are capable of producing very strong winds, particularly near its centre, torrential rainfall and associated storm surge. Globally, tropical cyclones rank with floods as the most lethal geophysical hazards. Tropical Cyclone can also be very destructive, often causing severe and widespread damage to coastal communities, infrastructure and ecosystems. Technically, a tropical cyclone is a cyclone that originates over tropical oceans and is driven principally by heat transfer from the ocean. Intense synoptic scale cyclones in the tropics are called tropical cyclones. As for all cyclones, tropical cyclones have low pressure in the cyclone centre near sea level. Also, the low altitude winds rotate cyclonically (counter clockwise in the N. Hemisphere) around the storm and spiral in towards the centre. Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes over the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and eastern Pacific Oceans. They are called typhoons over the western Pacific. Over the Indian Ocean and near Australia they are called cyclones. Hurricanes differ from mid latitude cyclones in that hurricanes do not have fronts. Hurricanes have warm cores while mid latitude cyclones have cold cores. Hurricanes can persist two to three times longer than typical mid latitude cyclones. At maturity, the tropical cyclone is one of the most intense and feared storms of the world; winds exceeding 90 ms-1 (175 knots) have been measured, and its rains are torrential. Tropical cyclones are initiated by a large variety of disturbances, including easterly waves and monsoon troughs. Once formed, they are maintained by the extraction of heat from the ocean at high temperature and heat export at the low temperatures of the tropical upper troposphere. After formation, tropical cyclones usually move to the west and generally slightly pole ward, then may “recurve,” that is, move into the mid latitude westerlies and back toward the east. Not all tropical cyclones recurve. Many dissipate after entering a continent in the Tropics, and a smaller number die over the tropical oceans. 66 4.2.1 Classification of Cyclones Weather Related/Coastal Hazards Cyclones are classified as tropical or extra-tropical based on their place of origin and the temperature of their centre or core region. 1. Tropical Cyclones (TCs) derive their energy from latent heat acquired from evaporation of water at the ocean surface that is subsequently released upon condensation at greater heights. Earth’s rotation drives cyclonic winds at low levels in the atmosphere toward the resulting low pressure (the eye). Although other factors are involved, the three primary conditions for TC formation are: sufficiently high (>26 °C) sea surface temperatures (SSTs); sufficiently low vertical wind shear (change in wind velocity with height); sufficiently high contribution from Earth’s rotation (formation >5 degrees N and S). 2. Extratropical Cyclones (ETCs) unlike tropical cyclones derive much of their energy from the ambient horizontal temperature (and associated density) difference (gradient) in the atmosphere. This gradient represents a pool of potential energy that a developing storm can convert to rotational wind, or kinetic, energy. As colder, denser air wedges itself under the warmer air, the center of gravity is lowered and the resulting reduction in potential energy is manifested as kinetic energy by the developing cyclone. The density difference across the temperature front is supported by vertical wind shear or increasing westerly wind speed with height in the mid latitudes. 3. Subtropical Cyclone (STCs) are a non frontal low pressure system that has characteristics of both tropical and extratropical cyclones. Like tropical cyclones, they are non frontal, synoptic scale cyclones that originate over tropical or subtropical waters, and have a closed surface wind circulation about a well-defined center. In addition, they have organized moderate to deep convection, but lack a central dense overcast. Unlike tropical cyclones, subtropical cyclones derive a significant proportion of their energy from baroclinic sources, and are generally cold-core in the upper troposphere, often being associated with an upper level low or trough. In comparison to tropical cyclones, these systems generally have a radius of maximum winds occurring relatively far from the center (usually greater than 60 nm), and generally have a less symmetric wind field and distribution of convection. Although cyclone is the general meteorological term applied to a large low- pressure system with winds circulating inward toward its center, various terms are used to describe these systems in different parts of the world. The terminology for strong tropical cyclones: Hurricane, Typhoon and Cyclones are different terms used for tropical cyclones. The term Hurricane is used in the western North Atlantic, Central and Eastern North Pacific, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico and the term Typhoon are used in the Western North Pacific in the Indian Ocean and Western South Pacific, tropical cyclones are called Cyclones. In the case of tropical cyclones, 67 Natural Hazards when the maximum sustained wind near the centre exceeds 119 km/h, they are called “severe cyclonic storm” in the North Indian Ocean. The possibility for the formation of tropical cyclones in the South Atlantic Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean and the South Eastern Pacific is very low due to the cooler sea surface temperature and higher vertical wind shear. TC’s develop at latitudes usually greater than 05O from the equator and they reach their highest intensity while they are located over warm tropical waters. In the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, these storms are called hurricanes after a Caribbean word for an evil god of winds and destruction. In the Pacific Ocean west of the International Dateline (180o longitude) and north of the equator, the storms are called typhoons after a Chinese word for “scary wind” or “wind from four directions”. Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean south of the equator and Indian Ocean are referred to using some variation of cyclone, a term coined from the Greek word meaning “coil of a snake”. Table 4.1: Classification of Cyclones/Hurricanes/Typhoons Based on Geographic Location Hurricane NorthAtlantic Ocean the northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific east of 160E Typhoon Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline Severe Tropical Cyclone Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E Severe Cyclone North Indian Ocean Tropical Cyclone Southwest Indian Ocean The oceanic basins where tropical cyclones form on regular basis are: 1. Atlantic basin (including the North Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Seal. 2. Northeast Pacific basin (from Mexico to about the dateline) 3. Northwest Pacific basin (from the dateline to Asia including the South China Sea) 4. North Indian basin (including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea) 5. Southwest Indian basin (from Africa to about 100 E) 6. Southeast Indian/Australian basin (100 E to 142 E) 7. Australian/Southwest Pacific basin (142 E to about 120 W) Naming Cyclones Only a small percentage of all cyclones are given names, either to identify where they form or to track their movement. Extratropical cyclones, especially those that become snowstorm, are sometimes named for the geographic area where they form (e.g., Alberta Clipper). In contrast, all tropical depressions 68 that develop into tropical storms and hurricanes are given individual names by government forecasting centers. These names are established by international Weather Related/Coastal agreement through the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). An official Hazards name is assigned once the maximum sustained winds of a tropical depression exceed 63 km (~39 mi.) per hour and it becomes a tropical storm.