West wind

air masses; north-westerly, south-westerly, northerly, easterly and southerly. British climate is classified as temperate as it rarely features the extremes of heat or cold, rain, drought or wind that are common in other climates. Basic characteristics of this climate include temperature, precipitation, wind and air masses. The mean summer temperatures in the UK are lower than the average for its latitude which is due to the cooling influence from the

Enroute: Enroute to Darwin the airliner flies over the Philippines, Indonesia and much of the Indian Ocean. The flight is around 2300 nautical miles (4300km) and in the Airbus A320 travelling at approximately 430kt (800km/hr) it will take five hours and twenty minutes. ITCZ: This flight travels straight through the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This is a belt of low-pressure where the northeast and southeast tradewinds meet, pushing air upwards. It is situated around the equator but moves

tornadoes are both cyclonic, therefore they form as such. For hurricanes, the winds rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, and rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

rotating), or a loud roar similar to a freight train (“Tornado Facts And History”). The best predictors for tornado activity are rotating thunderstorms. They are well defined thunderstorms on a radar that include flash floods, hail, lightning, or severe winds. (“11 Facts About Tornadoes”) These storms are called supercells (“Tornado Facts”). Once they reach land, tropical storms or hurricanes can be accompanied by tornadoes. When a warm front meets a cold front, a thunderstorm can form, which can create

The defining characteristics of the scale are: category, average wind speed, and damage description. This scale is intended to rate the intensity of tornadoes based on

everything in its path, and leaving many people homeless. Hurricanes are often measured on a scale of categories 1 to 5, with a category 1 having winds of around 80 km/h, and a category 5 having winds of over 250 km/h. Hurricane Sandy was only a category 2 hurricane, but it’s massive size gave it momentum, and allowed it to travel a longer distance. The winds went over 130 kilometers per hour, and water levels flooded over 9 feet. The hurricane hit hard up north, where it devastated cities with flooding

about north-north-west of Grenada.[4][5] Some six hours after its inception the depression strengthened to a tropical storm over the

could cause a hurricane to be formed, but the upper air circulation has to support a thunderstorm formation first. The vertical wind shear must be low to support the structure of a tropical cyclone, because if the wind shear gets too high it will break the structure, not allowing the cyclone to form. Once formed tropical cyclones can support and sustain themselves. As the wind diverges at the top of the cyclone, the diversion draws more air upwards, resulting in a low pressure at the surface leading

features, such as cuspate forelands, tom bolos, spits and bars, may develop (see Figure 1). Hurricanes Extreme events such as hurricanes are the major cause of shoreline changes in the Caribbean. Many hurricanes originate as tropical waves off the west coast of Africa and travel across the Atlantic Ocean gaining strength from the warm ocean waters (http://calspace.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange1/09_2.shtml). As tropical waves strengthen, they pass through several stages, including tropical

broke the record for being the strongest hurricane formed, just days after Hurricane Dennis had done so. The storm formed on July 10th, 2005 in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean. It then passed over the Windward Islands on the 14th, before traveling west-northwest and slowly intensified over the Caribbean until it hit its peak as a Category 5 hurricane on July 16th. This made it the first category 5 hurricane of the year. The storm travelled over the Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 4, and Emily hit