En-en adult card 34 cyclones

Card #34: Cyclones

Causes		Consequences
Increase in Water Temperature		Decline in Agricultural Yields Marine Submersion Human Health

Cyclones use energy from warm waters at the ocean surface. Because of global warming, they are becoming stronger.

Definition

A cyclone is a whirlwind phenomenon in tropical regions (between 30°N and 30°S) accompanied by winds whose speed is greater than or equal to 64 knots, i.e. 118 km/h (i.e. force 12 on the Beaufort scale).

The terms typhoon, hurricane and tropical cyclone all cover the same phenomenon, the designation adopted simply depends on where in the world it occurs. The term cyclone or tropical cyclone is reserved for the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific. The term hurricane, on the other hand, is used in the North Atlantic and North-East Pacific, and typhoon in the North-West Pacific.

Explanation

There are not more cyclones because of climate change, (at least we are not yet able to establish this statistically), but they are more violent.

For the upstream card, we can choose either the disruption of the water cycle, in the sense that the increase in cyclone power is an illustration of the disruption of the water cycle, or the increase in water temperature, because cyclones feed on the energy of warm water from intertropical areas. It makes less sense to have both.

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Occurrences of this phenomenon

United States

In September 2017, after the destruction of Harvey in Texas in August, Hurricane Irma devastated the islands of St. Martin and St. Bartholomew's and Maria the island of Dominica.

In 2018, one year later, in the North Atlantic, Helen, Isaac, Joyce and Florence moved simultaneously, the latter causing nearly 30 deaths in North Carolina.

On March 3, 2020, 19 people died in Tennessee because of a tornado that destroyed roads, bridges, businesses and buildings that will have to be rebuilt.

Africa

On 19 March 2020, a strong storm in the south of Mersin in Turkey destroyed tens of thousands of almond trees.

Link to human health

Sunday, August 2, 2020, Florida is preparing for the passage of Isaias, the hurricane that dumped torrential rains on the Bahamas the day before. It could regain strength and test the emergency services of one of the states most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States. It has more than 480,000 cases detected since the start of the pandemic, surpassing New York, long the epicentre of the American epidemic in the spring, and second only to California, which has twice the population. Due to the weather, the state has had to close Covid-19 testing centres, many of which were set up in tents, in anticipation of the hurricane's arrival, although county testing centres remain open.