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SEVERE WEATHER

SEVERE WEATHER. THUNDERSTORMS. Thunderstorms are small , intense weather systems that produce strong winds, heavy rain, lightning and thunder. Must have two conditions: Warm, moist air near Earth’s surface Unstable atmosphere. What’s an UnStABLe ATMOSPHERE ???.

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SEVERE WEATHER

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  1. SEVERE WEATHER

  2. THUNDERSTORMS • Thunderstorms are small, intense weather systems that produce strong winds, heavy rain, lightning and thunder. • Must have two conditions: • Warm, moist air near Earth’s surface • Unstable atmosphere

  3. What’s an UnStABLe ATMOSPHERE??? Where cold air is above and around warm, wet air. This instability allows the air masses to move, which leads to the formation of clouds. These clouds release water as rain.

  4. When the rising warm air reaches its dew point (temp at which gas condenses to a liquid), the water vapor in air condenses and forms cumulus clouds. If the atmosphere is extremely unstable, the warm air will continue to rise. This causes the clouds to grow into dark clouds.Cumulonimbus

  5. TORNADOES • Tornadoes start out as a FUNNEL CLOUD that pokes through the bottom of cumulonimbus clouds and hang in the air. • Tornadoes have high wind speeds and LOW central pressure.

  6. TORNADOES The average tornado has wind speeds between 120 km/h and 180km/h, but rarer, more violent tornadoes can have spinning winds of up to 500 km/h. They are measured by the ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE. *Occur in the Spring- early Summer

  7. How are they measured? Enhanced Fujita Scale, named for its inventor, University of Chicago meteorologist Theodore Fujita. Fujita created the scale, based on the wind speed and type of damage caused by a tornado, in 1971. There were six levels on the original scale:

  8. HOW DO TORNADOES FORM??? 1. Wind moving in 2 directions causes the layer of air in the middle to spin. 2. The spinning column turns vertically by strong updrafts in the cumulonimbus cloud. Updrafts spin too. 3. The spinning column of air moves to bottom of the cloud & forms a funnel cloud. 4. The funnel cloud becomes a tornado when it touches the ground.

  9. HURRICANES What is a hurricane? *A large, swirling low-pressure tropical weather system that has wind speeds of at least 120 km/h. *Most powerful storm *Can travel for thousands of kilometers *Vary in size from 160-1500km in diameter

  10. Different names…same disaster *Atlantic/Eastern Pacific Oceans = hurricane *Western Pacific Ocean = typhoon *Indian Ocean = cyclone

  11. HURRICANES • Measured with the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

  12. How are they measured?

  13. ClimateWhere Hurricanes Form • Most form in the areas between 5⁰- 20⁰ North Latitude & 5⁰- 20⁰ South Latitude • Begins as thunderstorms over TROPICALWATERS = warm • Winds traveling in 2 different directions meet and cause the storm to spin Coriolis Effect causes storms to spin, Counterclockwise-North Hemisphere Clockwise- Southern Hemisphere

  14. What’s in a name? *There are different hurricane names depending on where the hurricane occurs. *Hurricane names are retired when they have made extremely negative economic and social impacts. *Sets of names are repeated after a number of years. *Go to the National Hurricane Center website for more details

  15. Parts of a hurricane *Eye- calmest area, VERY low pressure, can be very wide, be careful not to mistake for the end of a hurricane *Wall- most deadly area of a hurricane, wall of clouds that surrounds the eye, also called eye wall *Spiral Bands- largest area of hurricane, where rain falls from, thin clouds surrounding the eye wall

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