Portal:Tropical cyclones

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The Tropical Cyclones Portal

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A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center, a closed low-level circulation and a spiral arrangement of numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rainfall. Tropical cyclones feed on the heat released when moist air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor contained in the moist air. They are fuelled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easters, European windstorms and polar lows, leading to their classification as "warm core" storm systems. Most tropical cyclones originate in the doldrums near the Equator, approximately 10 degrees away.

The term "tropical" refers to both the geographic origin of these systems, which form almost exclusively in tropical regions of the globe, as well as to their formation in maritime tropical air masses. The term "cyclone" refers to such storms' cyclonic nature, with anticlockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise rotation in the Southern Hemisphere. Depending on its location and intensity, a tropical cyclone may be referred to by names such as "hurricane", "typhoon", "tropical storm", "cyclonic storm", "tropical depression" or simply "cyclone".

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Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city initially, but then turned towards it early on 24 December. After 10:00 p.m. ACST, damage became severe, and wind gusts reached 217 kilometres per hour (134.84 mph) before instruments failed. The anemometer in Darwin Airport control tower had its needle bent in half by the strength of the gusts.

Residents of Darwin were celebrating Christmas, and did not immediately acknowledge the emergency, partly because they had been alerted to an earlier cyclone (Selma) that passed west of the city, and did not impact it in any way. Additionally, news outlets had only a skeleton crew on duty over the holiday. (Full article...)

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Reanalyzed 1911 Atlantic hurricane season

The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks to correct and add new information about past North Atlantic hurricanes. It was started around 2000 to update HURDAT, the official hurricane database for the Atlantic Basin, which has become outdated since its creation due to various systematic errors introduced into the database over time. This effort has involved reanalyses of ship observations from the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) as well as reanalyses done by other researchers over the years. It has been ongoing as of 2016, and should last another four years. (Full article...)

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Cyclone Zoe was near its record peak intensity on late December 27, 2002 when this image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Cyclone Zoe was one of the most intense tropical cyclones ever observed in the South West Pacific Ocean.

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The 1998 Pacific hurricane season was a below average Pacific hurricane season. Despite this, it had nine hurricanes and six major hurricanes, which was well above average. The season officially started on May 15 in the eastern Pacific and on June 1 in the central Pacific, and ended on November 30; these dates conventionally delimit the period during which most tropical cyclones form in that region. The first tropical cyclone developed on June 11, about ten days later than the normal start of the season. The final storm of the year, Hurricane Madeline, dissipated on October 20. Storm activity in the Central Pacific Hurricane Center's warning zone was low, with just one tropical depression observed in the region. Two tropical cyclones from the eastern Pacific (Darby and Estelle) also entered the central Pacific; the former did so as a hurricane.

The most notable tropical cyclone of the year was Hurricane Isis, which killed fourteen people when it made landfall on southern Baja California Sur and coastal Sinaloa in Mexico. Isis caused considerable damage in the nation while destroying more than 700 homes and damaging dozens of cars. It later produced sporadic rainfall in the southwestern United States, leading to some traffic accidents. In addition to Isis, Tropical Storm Javier moved ashore the coast of Jalisco in Mexico; the country also experienced indirect effects from four other storms, all of which remained offshore. One tropical cyclone, Hurricane Lester, affected Central America, causing two deaths in Guatemala,and later brought heavy rains to southern Mexico. Three tropical cyclones brought light to moderate rainfall to the southwestern United States, and one hurricane produced rough surf along the coast of California. Hurricane Madeline contributed to a deadly and costly flood in southern Texas. (Full article...)

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Currently active tropical cyclones

Italicized basins are unofficial.

North Atlantic (2021): No active systems

East and Central Pacific (2021): No active systems

West Pacific (2021): Typhoon In-fa (Fabian); Tropical Storm Nepartak

North Indian Ocean (2021): No active systems

Mediterranean (2021–22): No active systems

South-West Indian Ocean (2021–22): No active systems

Australian region (2021–22): No active systems

South Pacific (2021–22): No active systems

South Atlantic (2021–22): No active systems

Last updated: 09:54, 25 July 2021 (UTC)

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Tropical cyclone anniversaries

July 24,

1979 - Tropical Storm Claudette (pictured) made landfall near the Texas-Louisianan border, bringing record levels of rainfall. The resulting floods caused about $400 million of damage.
2005 - Tropical Storm Gert becomes the fourth of seven tropical cyclones to make landfall over in Mexico. As a weak tropical storm, Gert only killed one person and caused minimal damages.

July 25,

1985 - Hurricane Bob (pictured) impacted South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane. Bob caused about $20 million in damage.
2002 - Hurricane Elida becomes the first of three Category 5 major hurricanes of the season. Elida had maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h (160 mph) and a minimum pressure of 921 hPa (27.20 inHg) out in the East Pacific.

July 26, 1926 - The 1926 Nassau hurricane (track pictured) reached its peak intensity with winds of 220 km/h (140 mph) over the central Bahamas. The hurricane killed 287 people and devastated Nassau.

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Did you know…

…that Cyclone Amphan (pictured) in 2020 was the first storm to be classified as a Super Cyclonic Storm in the Bay of Bengal since 1999?
…that Hurricane Beryl (pictured) in 2018 caused a spike in calls to a mental health hotline, due to the effects of Hurricane Maria on the island a year prior?
…that the 1858 San Diego hurricane is the only known tropical system that impacted California with hurricane-force winds?
…that Hurricane Zeta (pictured) in 2020 dropped several inches of snowfall in Boston, Massachusetts and was one of the few Atlantic tropical cyclones that brought accumulating snow?

Did you know archive

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The following are images from various tropical cyclone-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Hurricane Catarina, a rare South Atlantic tropical cyclone viewed from the International Space Station on March 26, 2004 (from Cyclone)
Image 2South Pacific cyclone (from Cyclone)
Image 3A polar low over the Sea of Japan in December 2009 (from Cyclone)
Image 4Surface weather map of the 1935 Labor Day hurricane moving up the west coast of Florida (from Tropical cyclone observation)
Image 5Pacific typhoon (from Cyclone)
Image 6The dangerous semicircle is the upper-right corner, with the arrow marking the direction of motion of a Northern Hemisphere storm. Note that typhoons, etc. are asymmetrical, and semicircle is a convenient misnomer. (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 72017 Atlantic hurricane season summary map (from Cyclone)
Image 8Aerial image of destroyed houses in Tacloban, following Typhoon Haiyan (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 9An extratropical cyclone near Iceland on September 4, 2003 (from Cyclone)
Image 10All but the most expensive bottles of water were sold out at this Publix supermarket before Hurricane Irma; in the week preceding the storm, water sold out soon after shipments arrived (from Tropical cyclone preparedness)
Image 11Hurricane response involves working in hazardous conditions, including contamination and electrocution hazards from floodwater.
Image 12The initial extratropical low-pressure area forms at the location of the red dot on the image. It is usually perpendicular (at a right angle to) the leaf-like cloud formation seen on satellite during the early stage of cyclogenesis. The location of the axis of the upper level jet stream is in light blue. (from Cyclone)
Image 13Australian region cyclone (from Cyclone)
Image 14Environment (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 15Atlantic hurricane (from Cyclone)
Image 16Tropical cyclones form when the energy released by the condensation of moisture in rising air causes a positive feedback loop over warm ocean waters. (from Cyclone)
Image 17North Indian Ocean cyclone (from Cyclone)
Image 18An example of a chart for Matthew showing its five-day forecast track (from Tropical cyclone preparedness)
Image 19A fictitious synoptic chart of an extratropical cyclone affecting the UK and Ireland. The blue arrows between isobars indicate the direction of the wind, while the "L" symbol denotes the centre of the "low". Note the occluded, cold and warm frontal boundaries. (from Cyclone)
Image 20Subtropical Storm Alex in the north Atlantic Ocean in January 2016 (from Cyclone)
Image 21Chart with concurrent information for Hurricane Arlene and Tropical Storm Bret logged and plotted (from Tropical cyclone preparedness)
Image 22Comparison between extratropical and tropical cyclones on surface analysis (from Cyclone)
Image 23Flooding in Port Arthur, Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey. Harvey was both the wettest and costliest tropical cyclone in United States history. (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 24Pacific hurricane (from Cyclone)
Image 25Hurricane Isabel (2003)'s effect on the North Carolina Outer Banks (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 26Personnel and equipment from the National Guard of the United States en route to Hurricane Florence response efforts in 2018
Image 27The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi. (from Tropical cyclone preparedness)
Image 28Radar image of Hurricane Erika making landfall over Northeastern Mexico (from Tropical cyclone observation)
Image 29Cyclone on Mars, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (from Cyclone)
Image 30The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi. Katrina was the second-costliest tropical cyclone in United States history. (from Effects of tropical cyclones)
Image 31South-West Indian Ocean cyclone (from Cyclone)

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Track map of all storms during the season

The 1983 Atlantic hurricane season was an event in the annual tropical cyclone season in the north Atlantic Ocean. It was the least active Atlantic hurricane season in 53 years, during which four storms formed. The season officially began on June 1, 1983 and ended November 30, 1983. These dates, adopted by convention, historically describe the period in each year when most systems form. The first named storm, Hurricane Alicia, formed on August 15. The last storm of the season, Tropical Storm Dean, dissipated on September 30.

This season produced seven tropical depressions, of which four became named storms; three attained hurricane status, of which one became a major hurricane, a storm that ranks as a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale. The most notable storm in 1983 was Hurricane Alicia, which killed 21 people and caused $2.6 billion (1983 USD; $5.6 billion 2008 USD) in damages, making it the costliest storm, at the time, in Texas history. As a result of its intensity, the name Alicia was subsequently retired from reuse in the North Atlantic by the World Meteorological Organization. Another notable storm, Hurricane Barry, made landfall on Florida as a tropical storm, then, after crossing into the Gulf of Mexico crossing, strengthened into a weak Category 1 hurricane that traveled almost due west across the Gulf before making landfall in extreme northern Mexico. (Full article...)

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Related WikiProjects

WikiProject Tropical cyclones is the central point of coordination for Wikipedia's coverage of tropical cyclones. Feel free to help!

WikiProject Meteorology is the main center point of coordination for Wikipedia's coverage of meteorology in general.

WikiProject Weather – Non-tropical storms task force – coordinates most of Wikipedia's coverage on notable extratropical cyclones, and the two projects share numerous overlaps.

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