Table of Contents
Hurricane Ida- Relevance for UPSC Exam
- GS Paper 1: Salient features of world’s physical geography- Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclones, etc.
Hurricane Ida- Context
- Recently, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana, the USA as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm.
- Hurricane Ida has been put into Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with top sustained winds of 240 km per hour.
Hurricanes- Categorization
- Saffir-Simpson scale: based on wind speed, Hurricanes are categorized on the Saffir-Simpson on a scale of 1 to 5.
- Hurricanes that reach category three or higher are classified as major hurricanes because of their potential to cause devastating damage to life and property.
Hurricanes- Key Points
- About: Hurricane is basically a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
- Tropical cyclone: It is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
- Location of Formation: Tropical Cyclone or Hurricanes are formed over warm ocean waters near the equator.
- Duration of formation:
- Atlantic Hurricanes: often formed from June to November and covers the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
- Eastern Pacific Hurricanes: Formed from May 15 to November 30.
Tropical cyclones or hurricanes- Pre-Conditions
- Presence of large sea surface with warm ocean water: temperature of the top layer of the sea should be at least 28°C, up to a depth of about 60 meters.
- Presence of Coriolis force enough to create a cyclonic vortex: This helps in an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, resulting in the formation of Tropical Cyclones/Hurricanes.
- Small variations in the vertical wind speed,
- A pre-existing weak low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation,
- Upper divergence above the sea level system.
Other Names of Tropical Cyclones
- Tropical Cyclones are called by different names depending upon the location of their occurrence. They are as follows-
Name of Tropical Cyclone | Location in the World |
Typhoons | China Sea and the Pacific Ocean |
Hurricanes | The Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean |
Willy-willies | North-western Australia |
Tropical Cyclones | Indian Ocean Region |