Dealing With Extreme Weather
Extreme Weather (Section 11.4)
Vocabulary Words
- Condenses: to lose heat and change from a vapor or gas into a liquid. Moisture, or water vapor, in the air condenses to form rain.
- Tropical Disturbance: a cluster of thunderstorms near the equator that moves with the prevailing winds.
- Tropical Depression: a storm near the equator with winds moving in a circle at speeds of up to 38 miles per hour.
- Tropical Storm: a storm near the equator with winds moving in a circle at speeds of 39 to 73 miles per hour.
Graphics
- Winds don't exceed 38 MPH
- Sucks in more air and moisture than a tropical disturbance
- The wind rotates the depression counter clockwise
- Tropical Depressions occur in low pressure areas.
- This graphic displays a tropical disturbance, or group of thunderstorms that have joined together.
- Thunderstorms form due to the warm ocean water below them condensing.
- When these thunderstorms condense they form a tropical disturbance, which leads to a tropical depression.
- When a tropical disturbance joins and starts to swirl, due to the coriolis effect, the storm becomes a tropical depression.
- This storm has become a tropical storm because its wind speeds have reached 50 mph.
- If its winds reach 74 mph it will officially be a hurricane.
- Because of the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane will continue to grow as the water condenses, making the storm worse.
- Most storms die out before they become a hurricane.