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Tropical Cyclones And The Southwest Pacific / Cyclone Val Case Study

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Tropical Cyclones in the Southwest Pacific / Cyclone Val Case Study - Jayavi Premaratne

Introduction

A tropical cyclone can be defined as “a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, strong winds/gusts, and also a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain, damage, and negative effects to people.” Cyclones are also known as hurricanes and typhoons in America and Asia respectively, but in the Pacific and parts of the Indian Ocean, they are most commonly referred to as Cyclones. They generally form 5º to 8º north or south off the equator, where the water temperature is equal to or higher than 26.5 ºC (so sufficient amounts of latent heat is available), and can move further north or south up to roughly 30º off the equator. However, cyclones rarely form within 5º off the equator and they rarely cross the equator (from northern to southern hemisphere, or vice versa) because of the Coriolis effect, which determines the direction that these hazards spin in the north and south hemisphere, by the rotation of the earth. Tropical Cyclones come with many harsh consequences. These include storm surges, strong winds and large amounts of rainfall which all mount to large amounts of both physical and emotional damage. These cyclones which occur often in the Pacific Island region, usually hit an island, on an annual basis at least.

In this essay, I will be focusing on Tropical Cyclones in the Pacific region, and later on, I will more

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