Discuss the nature of Hurricanes and how it applies to the earth’s weather. In your response, you should include facts such as, growth stage, mature stage, dissipating stage and severe weather associated with Hurricanes.
Hurricanes are spiral tropical storms that packs wind speed and deliver heavy rain in different occasions. Formation starts with tropical disturbance that occurs on warm waters, this is necessitated by low pressure that begins to push away warm water in circular manner. They are colossal heat systems that produce energy on astounding measure because they absorb water from warm waters then condense them to form thunderstorms. They spin around a central point, a section that appears calm because of sinking air. They generate storms that have devastating effects the moment they land on the shores; these effects include death and destruction of property and ecosystem. Furthermore, winds that accompany hurricanes are very destructive and may transform to tornadoes whose torrential rains spawn into floods and landslides. People can keep watch of hurricanes and protect themselves by conducting accurate forecasts on storms that are likely to endanger lives of people.
Hurricanes are known to form and occur in stages. The first stage is tropical disturbance that comprise collection of thunderstorms that only have small magnitude of wind circulation. During this stage there is a closed circulation that occurs when winds move in every direction, wind speed is measures at 25mph at this stage. This then degenerates into tropical depression that forms the basis of second stage or growth stage. This stage consists of collections of thunderstorms that combine at the right atmospheric conditions for a given length of time. At this stage wind speed is averaged at between 23 and 29 mph, the region around the center experience lowed pressure and organized circulation of wind is detected. At this stage the system is predictably disorganized.
Third stage or mature stage is tropical storm; it forms when strong winds are sustained and their strength intensified by massive speeds. At this stage, winds are more organized to appear circular in shape, also called a storm. The wind speed at this stage is 39 mph and at this stage, the systems can cause minimal damages to the environment. A hurricane then forms at the fourth stage when surface pressures drop drastically and wind speeds intensify and becomes stronger. Dissipation stage marks the last stage of a hurricane, during this stage massive rotations of water necessitated by wind can be witnessed. During this stage, the system is closed and ultimately becomes an eye sustaining a wind speed of 74 mph; this stage is capable of causing substantial damage.
Severe weather associated with hurricanes include storms swelling to form tides, heavy rainfall that leads to massive flooding on land, high and strong winds that sweep roof tops of houses and tornadoes that are very destructive. Hurricanes are critical in establishing weather of a place and as such apply to weather. Surging storms are a great threat to life and property along coastlines despite transforming weather of such places. When storm surges to habitable places lives are lost, buildings are destroyed and transport network are damaged.
Hurricanes affects weather of a place through tropical cyclones that produce torrential rains suddenly and at times may be deadly through destructive floods. High winds also affect cloud formation and thus disrupt evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Furthermore, strong winds are dangerous to both flora and fauna, when vegetation is destroyed weather and climate of a region can be disrupted. Surging winds may generate waves that produce deadly rip currents that sweep coastal regions. Tornadoes are produced from tropical storms and hurricanes; they propagate and threaten life of inhabitants of nature. Hurricanes may help define tropical climate of regions between tropics because weather in such regions are characterized by storms developing from convergence zones and oceanic disturbance of hurricanes.
Fig 1. Showing hurricane circulation to form an ‘eye’
Fig 2. Destructive capability of a hurricane
Discuss the nature of air pollution and how it relates to the earth’s weather.
Air pollution is when substances are introduced into the environment and then inhaled to produce damaging effects to living things. Contamination is necessitated by pollutants that can either be visible or invisible and whose impacts contribute to climate change and global warming. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas is a major pollutant that contributes to warming of earth especially when it comes out of cars, planes and other human activities involving use of fossil fuels. Methane is another pollutant that originates from swamps and emission from livestock after refrigeration, it depletes the ozone layer. Smog produces sulfur dioxide that causes acid rain but also causes cooling of the earth.
Initially most of the gases were from volcanic eruptions, today people are the main source of the greenhouse gases. Pollutants such as nitrogen oxide increases amount of ozone in the atmosphere and therefore affect chemical composition of the atmosphere disrupting weather. Broadly air pollution is caused through burning of fuel fossils, extensive agricultural activities that generate ammonia, company and factory emissions that release hydrocarbons and other dangerous chemicals to the environment.
Moreover, mining as an economic activity releases dust and other chemicals that contaminate and deteriorate the environment, and indoor pollution arising from activities such as painting and cleaning. Major effects of air pollution include instigating respiratory and breathing problems in form of cancer and asthma. Notably, in respect to environment and weather, air pollution promotes global warming through increased global temperatures leading to melting of ice and loss of crucial habitat of environment. Others are formation of acid rains that affects fauna and flora through rainfall, eutrophication where nitrogen in the air get dissolved into sea surfaces and thus promoting flourishing of algae and other unwanted organisms.
Air pollution relates to weather because predominant whether conditions can weaken or improve quality of air in the atmosphere. For instance, strong winds have been major agents of transporting pollutants from one geographical location to another, on the other hand when wind is weak pollutants may accumulate in one place and thereby affect living organisms.
Moreover, pollutants may lead to formation of acid rain, on the same note, air pollutants in the environment may clean or pollute the environment when it rains. The same can be discussed on how traffic emissions may mix with other pollutants, this is then transported by wind to other geographical regions, long range pollutants are always a mixture of particles and dust from factories, power generation plants and forest fires.
Consequently, in respect to weather chemical reactions are more active and powerful in sunny and warm weather, this is supported by the assertion that ozone layer actively forms when environmental condition is warm and sunny compared to cold cloudy atmosphere. Furthermore, when the environment is seriously contaminated through air pollutants, fog and rain can clean up the environment to make to more conducive and favorable for all inhabitants of the ecosystem.
However, this may also be viewed on the negative side because when a polluted place is visited by rain, chemical pollutants can fall with the rain and thus pollute soil and water. In light of this, when chemical compounds dissolve in water they may lead to acidification that greatly affects marine life since most of them cannot cope up with such a condition. It is important to note that relationship between air pollution and weather of the earth is clear in situations when the weather rapidly and naturally changes to alter concentration of pollutants in the environment.
Fig 3. Air pollution emanating from factory emissions
Fig 4. Weather impacts of air pollution
Discuss the nature of climatic and climate change and how it relates to the earth’s weather. Provide details on the formation, and types.
Climatic and climate change is described as potential rise of surface temperatures on Earth. Desirably, this condition is blamed on human activities especially use of fossil fuels which releases greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Once these gases have been released to the atmosphere they potentially trap heat within the atmosphere whose end result includes alteration of the ecosystem, rising seas levels and severe weather conditions. The primary cause of climatic and climate change is the use of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal that in return release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
However, other activities such as agriculture and deforestation also add some composition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere triggering climate change. Climate change causes melting of ice that prompts rising sea levels to cause heavy and destructive storms, when this is added to rainfall flooding occurs that destroys property and cause deaths. Increased surface temperatures increase chances of forest fires that threaten the delicate ecosystem through destruction of habitats and even causing loss of lives.
Weather defines climatic conditions of places and as a result there are several types of climates including Mediterranean, oceanic, humid continental, and subarctic climate. Mediterranean climate is characterized by wet winters and dry summer, this is experienced along the Mediterranean Sea shore and Middle East. Oceanic climate has precipitation occurring throughout the year where cold season is characterized by more rainfall and experienced in countries like Chile, Portugal and Norway.
Continental humid climate is recognizable through experiences of cold winter, warm summer and precipitation evenly distributed through a calendar year. Areas that experience this kind of climate include Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Midwest United States and southern parts of Ontario Canada. Subarctic Climate experiences short warm summers and long and vey chilly winters, temperatures also vary. Regions that experience this climate include Northern Scandinavia, Alaska, Siberia and most parts of Yukon.
Climate change and weather are intertwined considering how climate relies heavily on daily observation of weather patterns whose average indicates climate. This is supported by the fact that potential changes in weather or statistics of a place over a given time helps in identifying climatic and climate change. Predicting weather of a particular place is potentially difficult because of the chaotic nature of weather patterns. However, predicting the climate of a place based on daily weather changes is possible; this forms one of the striking differences between weather and climate.
Individual weather patterns relate to social and economic predicaments associated with climate change. Climate change is responsible for some of the extreme weather patterns experience in some parts of the world, uncertainties associated with future weather conditions should be used as strong frameworks to link climate change and weather. As a matter of fact, climate change has resulted to alteration of weather condition, for example, heavy downpours that has been seen in some parts of the world is as result of climate change altering composition of the atmosphere.
Likewise, some areas have been transformed into deserts because of reduction in rainfall as a resulted of climatic transformations. Significantly, most of the weather trends observed such as increase in temperatures, increased precipitation in some areas and droughts have been as a result of climate change and global warming. This has literally changed weather patterns to the extent of being unpredictable and in the process changed human activities and composition of the ecosystem.
Fig 5. Impacts of climate change to the environment
Fig 6. Global warming effects of increased temperature