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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.

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Key term

What sea conditions are needed before a tropical cyclone can develop?

Key term

Why do tropical cyclones never form directly over the equator?

Key term

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. 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. 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. 3

    Between roughly which latitudes do tropical cyclones form?

    Model answer

    Between about 5° and 30° north and south of the equator.

  4. 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. 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. 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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