Edexcel GCSE Geography A 1GA0
Changing Cities
Coastal Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management
Energy Resource ManagementResource option
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork
Geographical Investigations − UK Challenges
Geographical Skills
Glaciated Upland Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Global Development
Mathematics and Statistics Skills
Resource Management
River Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
The Changing Landscapes of the UK
Water Resource ManagementResource option
Weather Hazards and Climate Change
Weather Hazards and Climate Change
How tropical cyclones form, and where they occur
- 3 things to know
- Paper 1
Overview
The sea temperatures, latitudes and uplift tropical cyclones need, how they develop and weaken over land, their names in different oceans, the eye and eyewall, the cyclone season and warming oceans, and classifying storms on the Saffir-Simpson scale by sustained wind speed.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why do tropical cyclones never form directly over the equator?
How does the global circulation of air supply the uplift that starts a tropical cyclone?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What sea conditions are needed before a tropical cyclone can develop?
Model answer
Ocean water of at least about 27°C down to a depth of roughly 60 metres, which supplies the heat and moisture the storm feeds on.
- 2
Why do tropical cyclones never form directly over the equator?
Model answer
The Coriolis effect is zero there, so the rising air cannot be set spinning.
- 3
Between roughly which latitudes do tropical cyclones form?
Model answer
Between about 5° and 30° north and south of the equator.
- 4
How does the global circulation of air supply the uplift that starts a tropical cyclone?
Model answer
Trade winds from both hemispheres converge near the equator and force warm moist air upwards in a belt of low pressure.
- 5
Describe the sequence in which a tropical cyclone develops.
Model answer
Warm moist air rises rapidly and condenses, releasing latent heat that drives further uplift; surface pressure falls, air spirals inwards ever faster, and the spinning storm drifts westwards as it strengthens.
- 6
Why does a tropical cyclone weaken soon after it crosses onto land?
Model answer
It is cut off from the warm ocean water that supplied its heat and moisture, and friction with the land surface slows its winds.
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