Blog Post #3: Hurricane Mitch vs Typhoon Tip

A tropical cyclone is a large, rotating, low-pressure storm that commonly occurs in the topics during the summer and fall seasons. The different words used to describe this storm-hurricane, cyclone, typhoon-represent the same weather phenomenon, but are used based on location. The term hurricane is used in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific around the United States. Typhoon is used to portray the storm in the Northwest Pacific near Asia, and cyclone is used for illustration in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Tropical cyclones are formed and created by two main components: warm, tropical oceans and a pre-existing weather disturbance. If these proper conditions remain long enough, then moisture and relatively light winds will turn into violent winds, magnificent waves, torrential downpours, and floods that are all associated with this type of storm. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons thrive on tremendous amounts of energy in warm, tropical oceans. As water evaporates from the ocean surface, latent heat, or stored energy in water vapor that is not released to warm the atmosphere until condensation takes place, is stored. The latent heat is released when air begins to rise and water vapor condenses into clouds and rain. As the disturbances produce more precipitation, more energy is released. The rising air creates an area of low pressure at the ocean's surface. More warm air moves toward the low-pressure center to replace the risen air in a process known as the Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis Effect causes moving air to turn counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This is the characteristic, cyclonic rotation of a tropical cyclone.

As the moving air approaches the center of the growing storm, it rises, then rotates faster and faster,
increasing in speed as more energy is released through condensation. The air pressure in the center of the system continues to decrease, while the surface wind speeds continue to increase. This process will continue as long as atmospheric conditions allow warm air to be fed into the system at the surface, and removed from the system in the upper atmosphere.

Many of the world's oceans are home to subtropical high-pressure systems. In the deep tropics, tropical cyclones are often caught up in the circulation of these high-pressure systems. As the storms grow and develop, they move gradually toward the west then eventually turn poleward as they reach the far edges of the high-pressure systems. The storms are guided by prevailing westerlies and interact with mid-latitude systems. At this point, the interaction of various winds and weather systems makes the movement of the storms unpredictable.