How do typhoons develop

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Skip to main content. Carrie Cockburn. How typhoons are formed 1. Typhoon Haiyan's path and speed The following map shows the typhoon's path through the Philippines and into China. The numbers correspond to: 1. With winds gusting between 75 and miles per hour, typhoons are some of the most impressive storms on the planet.

The destructive power of typhoons makes early warning and preparation vital, which is why meteorologists work hard to answer two very important questions about typhoons: Where do typhoons occur, and how do they form? The answers to these questions allow scientists to make lifesaving predictions about when and where typhoons will occur.

Instead, they begin as something called a tropical wave. These regularly form in the tropics, where the sun shines directly for most of the year. Because warm air can hold water better than cool air, low-pressure systems like tropical waves are warmer and wetter than the surrounding air, and they often appear carrying clouds.

In this zone prevailing winds push westward from South America toward Asia and Australia. As the tropical wave moves westward, warm, wet ocean air is added to the wave, increasing its size. If the sea surface under the tropical wave is at least Other conditions have to be met for the tropical wave to become a full typhoon. As this happens, thunderstorms form. These winds are often associated with thunderstorms.

This vortex is the beginning of a cyclone. If these forces meet more than miles away from the equator, an additional force comes into play. This process takes up more and more territory. Due to the constant flow of humid and warm air, cloudiness is intensely formed, precipitation falls, and the wind increases.

Now let's take a look what the Coriolis force is. Due to the fact that the planet rotates around its axis, the force of Coriolis acts on all moving objects, including air masses. It works like this: if a body moves along the surface of the earth, it is deflected to the right all the time in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the left - in the Southern Hemisphere. Let's get back to the tropical cyclone. Thanks to the Coriolis force, the air going to this funnel starts to rotate.

Therefore, the top of a tropical cyclone looks like a funnel.