EESA09H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Thermohaline Circulation, Critical Role
5 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
It is a tropical storm which has sustained winds which exceed 50 m/s. Another way to classify and quantify hurricanes is the saffir-simpson scale. It is a rating scale spanning from 1 to 5 and is based on wind speed and the central pressure of the hurricane. For context the average air pressure at sea level is 1013 mb. Relatively small variations about this value (less than 10%) characterize the high and low pressures on the planet. 119-153 km/h (33 42. 5 m/s), > 980 mb. 154-177 km/h (42. 5 - 49 m/s), 965 979 mb. 178-209 km/h (49 58 m/s), 945 964 mb. 210-249 km/h (58 69 m/s), 920 944 mb. Category five hurricane: greater than 249 km/h (> 69 m/s), < 920 mb. Tropical storms are fueled by sea surface temperatures and latent heat release. Observationally it has been noted that 26. 5c is the threshold for tropical storm formation.
