PHYS 106L Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Warnings And Watches, Lapse Rate
Document Summary
Tropical cyclones are violent storms characterized by a low pressure center, high winds, heavy rain, and rough seas. Form over tropical oceans and are fueled by the evaporation of warm water and the conversion of thermal energy into kinetic energy. If they form in the atlantic or eastern pacific, they"re called hurricanes. Air circulates around and in toward a hurricane"s low pressure center. Surface wind speeds are light in the eye. Reach a maximum approximately 25 km from the eye and diminish with distance from the eye wall. Called the eye wall because of the tall cumulonimbus clouds. As air moves toward the eye, it gains thermal energy through evaporation from the warm ocean surface. Air rises near the storm"s center forming tall cumulonimbus clouds that constitute the eye wall. At high levels of the troposphere, air diverges from the central eye, an area of weak high pressure.
