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Heat Wave
Heat waves are the most lethal type of weather phenomenon in the United States. Between 1992 and 2001, deaths from excessive heat in the United States numbered 2,190, compared with 880 deaths from floods and 150 from hurricanes.[26] The average annual number of fatalities directly attributed to heat in the United States is about 400.[27] The 1995 Chicago heat wave, one of the worst in US history, led to approximately 739 heat-related deaths over a period of 5 days.[28] Eric Klinenberg has noted that in the United States, the loss of human life in hot spells in summer exceeds that caused by all other weather events combined, including lightning, rain, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes.[29][30] Despite the dangers, Scott Sheridan, professor of geography at Kent State University, found that less than half of people 65 and older abide by heat-emergency recommendations such as drinking plenty of water
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Typhoon
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin,[1] and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for almost one-third of the world's annual tropical cyclones. For organizational purposes, the northern Pacific Ocean is divided into three regions: the eastern (North America to 140°W), central (140°W to 180°), and western (180° to 100°E). The Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) for tropical cyclone forecasts is in Japan, with other tropical cyclone warning centers for the northwest Pacific in Hawaii (the Joint Typhoon Warning Center), the Philippines and Hong Kong [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Tropics
The tropics are the region of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are delimited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at 23°26′11.7″ (or 23.43658°) N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at 23°26′11.7″ (or 23.43658°) S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth. The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone (see geographical zone). The tropics include all zones on Earth where the Sun contacts a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year (which is a subsolar point). Thus the maximum latitudes of the tropics have the same value positive and negative. Likewise they approximate, due to the earth not being a perfect sphere, the "angle" of the Earth's axial tilt [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Derecho
A derecho (/dəˈreɪtʃoʊ/, from Spanish: derecho [deˈɾetʃo], "straight" as in direction) is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system[1] and potentially rivaling hurricanic and tornadic forces.
Derechos can cause hurricane-force winds, tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods
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Monsoon
A monsoon (/mɒnˈsuːn/) is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation,[1] but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea.[2][3] Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is sometimes incorrectly used for locally heavy but short-term rains.[4][5]
The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons
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Supercell
A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft.[1] For this reason, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms.[2] Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell), supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms, and can dominate the local weather up to 32 kilometres (20 mi) away. They tend to last 2–4 hours. Supercells are often put into three classification types: classic (Normal precipitation level), low-precipitation (LP), and high-precipitation (HP). LP supercells are usually found in climates that are more arid, such as the high plains of the United States, and HP supercells are most often found in moist climates [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Anticyclonic Tornado
An anticyclonic tornado is a tornado which rotates in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere.[1] The term is a naming convention denoting the anomaly from normal rotation which is cyclonic in upwards of 98 percent of tornadoes.[citation needed] Many anticyclonic tornadoes are smaller and weaker than cyclonic tornadoes, forming from a different process, as either companion/satellite tornadoes or nonmesocyclonic tornadoes.[2] Various processes can produce an anticyclonic tornado. Most often they are satellite tornadoes of larger tornadoes which are directly associated with the tornadocyclone and mesocyclone. Occasionally anticyclonic tornadoes occur as an anticyclonic companion (mesoanticyclone) to a mesocyclone within a single storm. Anticyclonic tornadoes can occur as the primary tornado with a mesocyclone and under a rotating wall cloud [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Landspout
Landspout is a term created by atmospheric scientist Howard B. Bluestein in 1985 for a kind of tornado not associated with a mesocyclone.[1] The Glossary of Meteorology defines a landspout as Landspouts are a type of tornado that forms during the growth stage of a cumulus congestus cloud by stretching boundary layer vorticity upward and into the cumulus congestus's updraft. These generally are smaller and weaker than supercell tornadoes and do not form from a mesocyclone or pre-existing rotation in the cloud. Because of this, landspouts are rarely detected by Doppler weather radar.[3] Landspouts share a strong resemblance and development process to that of waterspouts, usually taking the form of a translucent and highly laminar helical tube. Landspouts are considered tornadoes since a rapidly rotating column of air is in contact with both the surface and a cumuliform cloud [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Mesocyclone
A mesocyclone is storm-scale region of rotation (vortex), typically around 2 to 6 mi (3.2 to 9.7 km) in diameter, within a thunderstorm. In the northern hemisphere it is particularly found in the right rear flank of a supercell or often on the eastern, or front, flank of an HP storm. The circulation of a mesocyclone covers an area much larger than the tornado that may develop within it.[1] Mesocyclones are detectable on Doppler weather radar as a rotation signature which meets specific criteria for magnitude, vertical depth, and duration. On US NEXRAD radars displays, they will be highlighted by a yellow solid circle on the Doppler velocity products but other countries may have other conventions [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
Anticyclone
An anticyclone (that is, opposite to a cyclone) is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.[1] Effects of surface-based anticyclones include clearing skies as well as cooler, drier air. Fog can also form overnight within a region of higher pressure. Mid-tropospheric systems, such as the subtropical ridge, deflect tropical cyclones around their periphery and cause a temperature inversion inhibiting free convection near their center, building up surface-based haze under their base [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] |
