Tropical Cycolnes; Article Essay. Jeanne

Natural Disasters Leave an Impact

Knowledge people obtain may last a lifetime, and as time goes on, individuals come to a cognizance that in order to move forward we must continue to work hard and uncover new mysterious, especially through science. Many people are not aware of the dangers of how being oblivious to the future are; it is very consequential to be conscious of the future in Earth Science, especially in regard to the weather. Most people are well informed about the macabre outcomes from natural disasters including hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons that take place in our world, decimating everything in their path. In the article “How do you tell the difference between a cyclone, a hurricane and a typhoon?” by Richard Gray, shows the importance of knowledge of what these natural disasters are.

All three of these storms; cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons, are similar in meteorological description in being rotating masses of air that centre around areas of low pressure bringing high speed winds, heavy rain, and thunder storms, the difference is where in the world they are generated (Gray, 1). Typhoons usually affect south east Asia because they develop in the north western part of the Pacific Ocean, and hurricanes usually form in the north Atlantic ocean or in the north east Pacific Ocean having a very large effect in the Caribbean. Typhoons and hurricanes are both immense and intense spiraling bodies of air that form over large warm bodies of water, known as tropical cyclones. The evaporation of water molecules on the surface of the bodies of water is what provides the storms’ energy. Due to the warmth in the water, the humidity in the troposphere, and the Coriolis effect, the storms create a low-pressure core; and these storms of warm moist air take on circular motions because of the Earth’s rotation. The counterclockwise motion builds up the energy brought to make the storms more powerful. These powerful winds of a typhoon circulate at around 74-195 miles per hour inflicting severe amounts of damage onto our society. Because there is no specific typhoon season as opposed to hurricanes, which usually occur in the summer and fall, there is a big difference in how often they occur: there are approximately 10-15 hurricanes a year, and around 30 typhoons. Typhoons and hurricanes are tremendously strong especially within the eye where the severe weather occurs. In order to know the dangers of what a tropical cyclone may administer, meteorologists measure the winds with the Saffir-Simpson Scales categorized for hurricanes and typhoons. Interestingly, the naming process of the tropical storms originated in the mid 1900s bringing some history to our present day; per basin there are women and men’s names waiting to be utilized and become famous for mass destruction. Hurricanes are named systematically in an alphabetical order, while typhoons naming process are more complicated in which their names are not chosen alphabetically and they can be inspired by animals, plants, astrology, mythological creatures, people, and places.

People in America seem to be more aware of hurricanes because of the monumental ones that have occurred throughout this generation, like Hurricane Katrina as opposed to Typhoon Cobra. The relevance of these does not mean that one is less destructive than the other because both natural disasters leave jarring impacts on the environment and people physically and emotionally. Throughout this article we become well informed about what tropical cyclones are and how much research meteorologists must do in order to help civilization. The occurrences of tropical cyclones destroy cities and lives, which is why the studies that meteorologists accomplish are so critical to our society and future. The studies they do allow us to know of the detrimental effects of natural disasters that may be coming our way, as well as learning the patterns in order to prepare for the future.

          This article was an appropriate choice for a simple interpretation of the context in order to write a short essay, and because of the language the author used, I only had to look up a few terms. I enjoyed this article especially because I have previously written an essay about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, so it was enlightening to understand the scientific side to the catastrophe. But if the reader does not understand the article because he or she does not put in the time to inference conclusions by referencing the outside world and deducing the facts then the article is practically pointless. In order to do this assignment we had to allow the information to sink in and I had to use prior knowledge in order to create connections made between the article and the effect on society. Overall this article was a good choice for a short essay, but I do wish there was more information on how tropical cyclone’s patterns are determined.

Citations:

Gray, Richard. "How Do You Tell the Difference between a Cyclone, a Hurricane and a Typhoon?" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2013.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/topics/weather/10385681/How-do-you-tell-the-difference-between-a-cyclone-a-hurricane-and-a-typhoon.html?fb