Hindustan Times Travel bug? UN predicts a billion international tourists in 2012 Hindustan Times More than one billion tourists will take a trip this year crossing an international boundary, a threshold never before reached, UN officials told a mee...
Khaleej Times Abu Dhabi Tourism forays into United States Khaleej Times “Opening a US office was a natural progression for us,” said Dayne Lim, Product Development Director, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority. “Abu Dhabi is rapidly becoming an...
Fly from to with...
By clicking on these logos, you will be transferred directly to the respective airlines' sites. Absolutely no middle-man.
Flight Search Engine
This flight search engine finds the best-priced flights across all available airlines and travel agencies, then allows you to book directly with them
I am Anna, currently interning here at Travel University. In order to obtain academic credit from my work, I must have it rated. If you wish, you will later be able to send me an email with your suggested improvements. So, please rate this page :-)
World distribution of tropical cyclones is limited to six regions, all of them over tropical and subtropical oceans.
(1) West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea;
(2) western North Pacific, including the Philippine Islands, China Sea, and Japanese Islands;
(3) Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal;
(4) eastern Pacific coastal region off Mexico and Central America;
(5) south Indian Ocean, off Madagascar; and
(6) western South Pacific, in the region of Samoa and Fiji Islands and the east coast of Australia.
2. Main article
Curiously enough, these storms are unknown in the South Atlantic. Tropical cyclones never originate over land, although they often penetrate far into the margins of continents.
Paths, or tracks, of tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic shows that most of the storms originate at 10° to 20° latitude, travel westward and northwestward through the trades, then turn northeast at about 30° - 35° latitude into the zone of the westerlies. Here the intensity lessens and the storms change into typical middle latitude cyclones. In the trade wind belt the cyclones travel some 6 to 12 mi (10 to 20 km) per hour, in the westerlies, from 20 to 40 mi (30 to 60 km) per hour.
3. References
The occurrence of tropical cyclones is restricted to certain seasons of year, depending on the global location of the storm region. Those of the West Indies, and off the western coast of Mexico, occur largely from May through November, with maximum frequency in late summer or early autumn. Those of the western North Pacific, Bay of Bengal, and Arabian Sea are spread widely through the year but are dominant from May through November. Those of the South Pacific and south Indian oceans occur from October through April. Thus, they are restricted to the warm season in each hemisphere.
The environmental importance of tropical cyclones lies in their tremendously destructive effect upon island and coastal habitations. Coastal destruction by storm waves, and greatly raised sea level is perhaps the most serious effect of tropical cyclones. Where water level is raised by strong wind pressure, great breaking storm waves attack ground ordinarily far inland of the limits of wave action. A sudden rise of water level, known as a storm surge, may take place as the hurricane moves over a coastline.
Ships are lifted bodily and carried inland to become stranded. If high tide accompanies the storm the limits reached by inundations are even higher. At the mouth of the Hooghly River on the Bay of Bengal, 300,000 persons died as a result of inundation by a 40-foot (12-meter) storm surge, which accompanied a severe tropical cyclone in 1737. Low-lying coral atolls of the western Pacific may be entirely swept over by wind-driven sea water, washing away palm trees and houses and drowning the in-habitants.
Of importance, too, is the large quantity of rainfall produced by tropical cyclones. A consider-able part of the summer rainfall of certain coastal regions can often be traced to a few such storms.
