Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Tropical Cyclones and Tornados

The purpose of this paper is to describe, contrast, and compare the tropical cyclone, which can develop into a hurricane, and the tornado. Although the term ôcycloneö is used also in popular parlance as a name for a tornado, this usage will be avoided here, since it would obviously be confusing. Cyclones and tornadoes are cyclonic phenomena, in that both consist of a mass of air that is whirling rapidly counterclockwise, but there are vast differences between them. The most important difference between the cyclone and the tornado is that the cyclone is a normal large-scale phenomenon--there are almost always cyclones somewhere within certain latitude belts of the northern hemisphere during many months of the year--but the tornado is a small-scale local phenomenon, and so inherently far more difficult to predict.

Cyclones are whirling masses of air hundreds of miles in diameter. They usually form behind well-established fronts that have become nearly stationary because of a major geographic feature, in the way that eddies will form when flowing water is partially blocked. For example, in winter cold Arctic air sweeps south over the United States, forming a cold front that pushes warmer air ahead of it. Usually the Rocky Mountains serve as a barrier that prevents the warmer air from being pushed to the west; hence, the cold front that separates the Arctic air from the warmer air becomes stationary somewhere along the eastern foothills of the Rockies, often over Colorado and the states north and south of it.

Many cyclones develop along this front, first as a wiggle in the front where there is falling barometric pressure. In some wiggles, the wave amplitude increases, and pressure continues to fall. In these clouds appear, thicken, and eventually produce rain or snow, at which time those people on land below the cyclone will experience it as a storm. During this process of development, the cyclone usually drifts toward t...

Page 1 of 7 Next >

More on Tropical Cyclones and Tornados...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Tropical Cyclones and Tornados. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:44, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1712189.html