Hurricane? Typhoon? Cyclone? What's the difference?
The difference is the area in which they form. Both of the terms "typhoon" and "hurricane" are regional names for tropical cyclones. All tropical cyclones are alike because they all draw in heat from warm water from the ocean's surface to power horizontal, rotating winds. These cyclones are different from Synoptic cyclones which draw their energy from weather fronts and jet streams. Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes in the East Pacific and the Atlantic, and typhoons in the West Pacific. In the Indian Ocean and near Australia they just call them cyclones. (Nasa)
Formula for Hurricanes
The perfect recipe for a hurricane includes four main aspects, warm ocean water, excess moisture in the air, a low vertical wind shear, and a pre-existing disturbance such as a thunderstorm. Without these things, a hurricane will not be able to form or hold. Once formed, scientists shift their focus onto where the hurricane is headed and the predicted damage. (Nasa)
Hurricane Metrics
The Saffir-Simpson hazard scale is used to determine the strength and categories of hurricanes based on their wind speeds. These storms can get between category 1-5. Category 1 is the lowest with wind speeds around 74-95 mph whereas a category 5, the highest, has wind speeds above 157 mph. As of recently, scientists are looking for another model to use alongside the Saffir-Simpson scale because wind speeds have not been a reliable predictor of rainfall amounts. Since there is no numeric scale of risk, rain, or damage for hurricanes, studies found that the information in the weather warnings were falling short. Jim Kossin, a co-founder of the new metric system, discovered a pattern in hurricanes called the stalling effect. This is where, regardless of wind speeds, hurricanes move slowly or stall over land and cause devastating impacts.
ERM
As hurricanes got worse, scientists realized how unreliable the Saffir-Simpson scale was and began looking for a new metric. Several universities applied this new metric, The Extreme Rain Multiplier (ERM) to hurricanes in the past with accurate results. ERM evaluates tropical cyclone rainfall for a region by comparing the potential for rain wit typical events for the area. After testing storms from 1948 to 2017, they found that some storms that would be labeled severe for rainfall and damage would be labeled weak for windspeeds. Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico, had the highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall ever recorded in the U.S. but was only ranked a category 4 hurricane. Nederland, Texas received 60 inches of rainfall. (NCIE)
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One of the key ingredients to create a hurricane is warm ocean water. As temperatures rise, the water warms up providing fuel for hurricanes to grow larger and do more damage. In 2024, the Gulf of Mexico's temperatures were at an all-time high creating the perfect environment for a hurricane to form. Warmer temperatures lead to heavier rainfall, more severe flooding and higher sea level leading to more dangerous storm surges.
While it's not true that hurricanes are increasing frequency due to climate change, the storms have continued to get stronger and more dangerous as the temperatures rise causing billions of dollars' worth of damage per storm. Hurricanes are unavoidable but the strength of them can be assessed by focusing on climate change.
2024 Hurricanes
Hurricane Milton: October, Category 5
Hurricane Helene: September, Category 4
Hurricane Francine: September, Category 2
Hurricane Debby: August, Category 1
Hurricane Beryl: June, Category 1
Thought hurricane Beryl was considered a category 1; it was one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded so early in the season causing widespread damage and leaving 2 million people without power. (NPR)
Hurricanes have a huge economic and mental impact on people. They are only going to get worse with rising temperatures. It is scary how common they have become in the south of US.
ReplyDeleteTrue, a friend of mine mentioned moving down south near the coast and my first thought was no thank you due to storms.
DeleteIt seems recent storms keep breaking records for strength, damage, and reconstruction costs.
ReplyDeleteSea surface temperatures rising is one large aspect I look at with my research with the geology department. We look at how these changes influence intensity and duration of tropical cyclones in the north Atlantic basin. The fact of the matter is that scientists failed to imagine how intense and rapidly acting these storms could be, and as you mentioned the Saffir-Simpson scale is simply too general to be a helpful descriptor to save lives. One major issue is tropical cyclones are spending more time in one place without much movement which can add to lives lost, power outages, and overall catastrophe in coastal cities. I hope we continue to prepare for the worst in order to prevent the loss of lives.
ReplyDeleteI think we talked about this in class, but because we are so unprepared for what’s to come it’s almost unimaginable. We are currently experiencing past centuries version of unimaginable.
DeleteJust the last few years I have seen and heard about a surplus of insanely dangerous storms. There was actually a tornado late last year that I experienced while at work with my kiddos, it was genuinely one of the scariest moments of my life.
ReplyDeleteThe discussion on the limitations of the Saffir-Simpson scale and the Extreme Rain Multiplier introduced me to the complexities of predicting storm impacts, especially as climate change continues to warm our oceans!
ReplyDeleteI always appreciate your posts because of the way you display your data, and this post is no different. As someone who has never seen any of these horrible natural disasters, it was crazy to read about how the ranking system was generated and how unreliable it is, especially because that is what we should be paying attention to, given climate change will increase their severity not quantity.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very informative post, with extensive vocabulary and breakdown. With climate change and global warming, we can expect to see a lot more tropical storms and natural disasters occurring. Another blog post was just talking about the air pollution deaths, I wonder how many will come from the tropical storms?
ReplyDeleteAs climate change continues to warm ocean waters, hurricanes are becoming increasingly powerful and destructive, underscoring the need for improved metrics like the Extreme Rain Multiplier (ERM) to better assess their potential impact beyond traditional wind speed measurements.
ReplyDeleteIt is so wild to me that we had to develop new metrics since the Saffir-Simpson hazard scale could not keep up with the increasing severity of hurricanes. I saw that there are predictions for up to seven hurricanes with two expected U.S. landfalls in 2025.
ReplyDeleteHaving grown up frequently hearing about my family down south experiencing hurricanes I had not yet heard of the Saffir-Simpson hazard scale before reading your post. It is harrowing that these disasters are getting so intense that former measurement systems are no longer reliable in these events.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Brynn! You clearly explain how hurricanes form and how climate change is making them stronger. Since rising ocean temperatures fuel these storms, do you think better climate policies could help reduce future hurricane damage? Also, do you think the new ERM metric will improve how we predict and prepare for extreme storms?
ReplyDeleteThe details here are crazy! It is unbelievable that anyone could look at this and not realize that we have some serious issues that need our immediate attention.
ReplyDeleteIt is shocking how people will see these events occur on other parts of the world but still fail to make the connection of these conditions to climate change. It is only predicted to worsen as we continue to increase carbon emissions which warm the ocean waters, so something needs to be done before the destruction begins to make areas of our planet inhabitable.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how people can see and even live through the direct effects of climate change but still somehow ignore it.
ReplyDeleteWe usually are able to see patterns of natural disasters and what's causing them, but currently they are happening more frequently and people think it's just a coincidence, but it has to do with climate change, hopefully they will notice it sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteThese cyclones can be incredibly destructive, and the crazy thing is that with climate change they may get even far more powerful. Check this out: https://thinc.blog/2015/08/08/james-hansen-about-those-boulders/
ReplyDeleteThank you for breaking this down for us! With the current administration making every effort to suppress information exchange surrounding climate change it is important to stay knowledgeable and up to date with climate change vocabulary and changes. How do monsoons fit into this breakdown, is it just a regional difference?
ReplyDeleteI did not know that Texas received 60 inches of rainfall from hurricane Harvey. Despite only being a category 4 it was still extremely catastrophic.
ReplyDeleteThis was so informative! I never looked into the differences between all of these natural disasters.
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