Team India stranded in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl: What are hurricanes, their types?

Team India stranded in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl: What are hurricanes, their types?

Sub: Geography

Sec: Climatology

Context:

• The Indian cricket team, fresh from their ICC World T20 Cup win, is stranded in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl.
• The team was scheduled to leave for New York on July 1, connecting through Dubai to reach India, but the hurricane has closed the Grantley Adams International Airport indefinitely.

Hurricane Beryl:

• Beryl is the earliest category 4 storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, with winds of at least 130 mph (209 km/h).
• It is impacting the Windward Islands, including Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.
• The hurricane is expected to cause violent winds and flash flooding, with life-threatening conditions forecasted for July 1.
• Warnings have been issued for several islands, including Barbados and St. Lucia, while Dominica and Trinidad are under a tropical storm watch.
• Schools are suspended indefinitely, some being used as hurricane shelters.
• The Barbados Water Authority has shut down the water supply, while the power company has not planned electricity cuts.
• Beryl is the strongest storm to hit the Windward Islands since Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Hurricane Formation:

• Hurricanes form over warm ocean waters near the equator, fueled by warm, moist air.
• Rising warm air creates low-pressure areas, drawing in surrounding air, which also warms and rises.
• The process creates clouds and wind systems that grow and spin, forming a hurricane.
• Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere due to Earth’s rotation.
• The most influential factors are:

1. A source of warm, moist air derived from tropical oceans with sea surface temperatures normally in the region of, or in excess, of 27 °C;
2. Winds near the ocean surface blowing from different directions converging and causing air to rise and storm clouds to form;
3. Winds which do not vary greatly with height – known as low wind shear. This allows the storm clouds to rise vertically to high levels;
4. Sufficient distance from the equator to provide spin or twist.

• La Nina, a weather pattern most commonly found in the Southern Pacific region also causes cyclones depending on the weather conditions at the time.

Increasing Severity of Hurricanes:

• As hurricanes make landfall, they weaken due to losing ocean moisture.
• A study in Nature suggests that warmer sea surface temperatures slow hurricane decay, increasing their impact.
• The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season saw 29 named storms, a record high.

Hurricanes vs. Tropical Storms:

• Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all tropical cyclones, named based on their location.
• Tropical cyclones are called by different names in different regions given below:
  • Hurricane – Atlantic
  • Typhoon – Western Pacific and the South China Sea
  • Willy-Willies – Western Australia
  • Cyclone – Indian Ocean

Source: IE