Effects of tropical cyclones

The effects of tropical cyclones are the impacts that tropical cyclones have on the areas they move through. The main destructive impacts include heavy rain, strong wind, large storm surges at landfall, and tornadoes. How devastating a tropical cyclone is depends mainly on its intensity, how big it is, and where it impacts. Tropical cyclones act to remove forest canopy as well as change the landscape near coastal areas, by moving and reshaping sand dunes and causing extensive erosion along the coast. Even well inland, heavy rainfall can lead to mudslides and landslides in mountainous areas. Their impacts can be sensed over time by studying the concentration of the Oxygen-18 isotope within caves within the vicinity of cyclones' paths.

After the cyclone has passed, devastation continues. Standing water can cause the spread of disease, and transportation or communications infrastructure may have been destroyed, hampering clean-up and rescue efforts. Nearly two million people have died globally due to tropical cyclones. Despite their devastating effects, tropical cyclones are also beneficial, by potentially bringing rain to dry areas and moving heat from the tropics poleward. Out at sea, ships take advantage of their known characteristics by navigating through their weaker, western half.

Out at sea

A mature tropical cyclone can release heat at a rate upwards of 6x10¹⁴ watts.cite web | author = National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration | url = http://www.noaa.gov/questions/question_082900.html | title = NOAA Question of the Month: How much energy does a hurricane release? | date = August 2000 | accessdate=2006-03-31 | publisher = NOAA] Tropical cyclones on the open sea cause large waves, heavy rain, and high winds, disrupting international shipping and, at times, causing shipwrecks.cite web|author=David Roth and Hugh Cobb|year=2001|title=Eighteenth Century Virginia Hurricanes|publisher=NOAA|accessdate=2007-02-24|url=http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/roth/va18hur.htm] Generally, after its passage, a tropical cyclone stirs up ocean water, lowering sea surface temperatures behind it.cite web | author = Earth Observatory | url = http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17164 | title = Passing of Hurricanes Cools Entire Gulf | year = 2005 | accessdate = 2006-04-26 | publisher = National Aeronautics and Space Administration] This cool wake can cause the region to be less favorable for a subsequent tropical cyclone. On rare occasions, tropical cyclones may actually do the opposite. 2005's Hurricane Dennis blew warm water behind it, contributing to the unprecedented intensity of Hurricane Emily, which followed it closely.cite web | url = http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2003/dis/al172003.discus.016.shtml | author = Franklin, James | title = Tropical Storm Emily Discussion No. 8, 5:00 p.m. EDT | date = July 12, 2005 | accessdate = 2006-05-02 | publisher = National Hurricane Center] Hurricanes help to maintain the global heat balance by moving warm, moist tropical air to the mid-latitudes and polar regions.cite web | publisher = Zurich Financial Services | url = http://www.zurich.com/main/productsandsolutions/industryinsight/2005/july2005/industryinsight20050711_004.htm | title = Living With an Annual Disaster | date = July/August 2005 | accessdate = 2006-11-29] Were it not for the movement of heat poleward (through other means as well as hurricanes), the tropical regions would be unbearably hot.

North American Colonization

Shipwrecks are common with the passage of strong tropical cyclones. Such shipwrecks can change the course of history, [Edward N. Rappaport and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdeadly.shtml? The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1996.] Retrieved on 2008-01-01.] as well as influence art and literature. A hurricane led to a victory of the Spanish over the French for control of Fort Caroline, and ultimately the Atlantic coast of North America, in 1565. [Sun-Sentinel. [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-hc-history-1495to1800,0,3354030.htmlstory Hurricane timeline: 1495 to 1800.] Retrieved on 2007-10-03.] The Sea Venture wrecked near Bermuda in 1609 which led to the colonization of Bermuda [Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker. [http://www.clairehope.btinternet.co.uk/PDFs/LinebaughRediker_seaventure.pdf The Wreck of the Sea-Venture.] ] and provided the inspiration for Shakespeare's "The Tempest".

hipping

Mariners have a way to safely navigate around tropical cyclones. [Old Dominion University. [http://www.odu.edu/ao/hrnrotc/students/ns_courses/301/ns3012007_15b%20weather.ppt Lesson 15B: Storm Avoidance.] Retrieved on 2008-01-07.] They split tropical cyclones into two halves, based on its direction of motion. They avoid the right half of the cyclone and termed it the dangerous semicircle since the heaviest rain and strongest winds and seas were located in this half of the storm. The other half of the tropical cyclone was called the navigable semicircle since weather conditions are less extreme in this half of the storm. The rules of thumb for ship travel when a tropical cyclone is in their vicinity are to avoid them if at all possible and do not cross their forecast path (crossing the T). Those travelling through the dangerous semicircle are advised to keep to the true wind on the starboard bow and make as much headway as possible. Ships moving through the navigable semicircle are advised to keep the true wind on the starboard quarter while making as much headway as possible. [The Pennsylvania State University. [http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~nrotc/ns301/lesson21.pdf Lesson 21: Weather.] Retrieved on 2007-05-26.]

Upon landfall

The most significant effects of a tropical cyclone occur when they cross coastlines, making landfall.

trong winds

Strong winds can damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles. In the United States, major hurricanes comprise just 21% of all landfalling tropical cyclones, but account for 83% of all damage.cite web|author=Chris Landsea|year=1998|title=How does the damage that hurricanes cause increase as a function of wind speed?|publisher=Hurricane Research Division|accessdate=2007-02-24|url=http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D5.html] Tropical cyclones often knock out power to tens or hundreds of thousands of people, preventing vital communication and hampering rescue efforts.cite news|author=Staff Writer|date=2005-08-30|title=Hurricane Katrina Situation Report #11|publisher=Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) United States Department of Energy|accessdate=2007-02-24|url=http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/katrina/katrina_083005_1600.pdf] Tropical cyclones often destroy key bridges, overpasses, and roads, complicating efforts to transport food, clean water, and medicine to the areas that need it. Furthermore, the damage caused by tropical cyclones to buildings and dwellings can result in economic damage to a region, and to a diaspora of the population of the region.

torm surge

The storm surge, or the increase in sea level due to the cyclone, is typically the worst effect from landfalling tropical cyclones, historically resulting in 90% of tropical cyclone deaths.cite web|author=James M. Shultz, Jill Russell and Zelde Espinel|year=2005|title=Epidemiology of Tropical Cyclones: The Dynamics of Disaster, Disease, and Development|publisher=Oxford Journal|accessdate=2007-02-24|url=http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/27/1/21] The relatively quick surge in sea level can move miles/kilometers inland, flooding homes and cutting off escape routes. The storm surges and winds of hurricanes may be destructive to human-made structures, but they also stir up the waters of coastal estuaries, which are typically important fish breeding locales.

Heavy rainfall

The thunderstorm activity in a tropical cyclone produces intense rainfall, potentially resulting in flooding, mudslides, and landslides. Inland areas are particularly vulnerable to freshwater flooding, due to residents not preparing adequately.cite web | author = Rappaport, Ed | url = http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/inland_flood.shtml | work = National Hurricane Preparedness Week | publisher = National Hurricane Center | title = Inland Flooding | date = May 2006 | accessdate = 2006-03-31] Heavy inland rainfall eventually flows into coastal estuaries, damaging marine life in coastal estuaries. [cite web | author = South Florida Water Management District | url = https://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page?_pageid=2814,19613298,2814_19613515&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL| title = Editorial Perspectives | date = 2005-10-11 | accessdate = 2007-05-17] The wet environment in the aftermath of a tropical cyclone, combined with the destruction of sanitation facilities and a warm tropical climate, can induce epidemics of disease which claim lives long after the storm passes. Infections of cuts and bruises can be greatly amplified by wading in sewage-polluted water. Large areas of standing water caused by flooding also contribute to mosquito-borne illnesses. Furthermore, crowded evacuees in shelters increase the risk of disease propagation.

Although cyclones take an enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be important factors in the precipitation regimes of places they impact and bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry regions. Hurricanes in the eastern north Pacific often supply moisture to the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Epac_hurr/Epac_hurricane.html 2005 Tropical Eastern North Pacific Hurricane Outlook] accessed May 2, 2006] Japan receives over half of its rainfall from typhoons.cite book | author = Whipple, Addison | year = 1982 | title = Storm | pages = 54 | location = Alexandria, VA | publisher = Time Life Books | id = ISBN 0-8094-4312-0] Hurricane Camille averted drought conditions and ended water deficits along much of its path,cite book | author = Christopherson, Robert W. | date = 1992 | title = Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geography | pages = 222–224 | publisher = Macmillan Publishing Company | location = New York | id = ISBN 0-02-322443-6] though it also killed 259 people and caused $9.14 billion (2005 USD) in damage.

On the other hand, the occurrence of tropical cyclones can cause tremendous variability in rainfall over the areas they effect: indeed cyclones are the primary cause of the most extreme rainfall variability in the world, observed in places such as Onslow and Port Hedland in subtropical Australia where the annual rainfall can range from practically nothing with no cyclones to over convert|1000|mm|in if cyclones are abundant.

Tornadoes

The broad rotation of a landfalling tropical cyclone often spawns tornadoes, particularly in their right front quadrant. While these tornadoes are normally not as strong as their non-tropical counterparts, heavy damage or loss of life can still occur. Tornadoes can also be spawned as a result of eyewall mesovortices, which persist until landfall.cite web | author = Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Hurricane Research Division | title = Frequently Asked Questions: Are TC tornadoes weaker than midlatitude tornadoes?|publisher = NOAA | date = 2006-10-04 | accessdate = 2006-07-25 | url = http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/L6.html]

Deaths

During the last two centuries, tropical cyclones have been responsible for the deaths of about 1.9 million persons worldwide. It is estimated that 10,000 people per year perish due to tropical cyclones. The deadliest tropical cyclone was the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which had a death toll of anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 lives.

United States

Before Hurricane Katrina, the average death rate for tropical cyclones in the United States was decreasing. The main cause of storm-related fatalities was shifting away from storm surge and towards freshwater flooding. [National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters. [http://www.srh.weather.gov/floods/images/flood.PDF Did you know?] Retrieved on 2007-05-18.] However, the median death rate per storm had increased through 1979, with a lull during the 1980-1995 period. This was due to greater numbers of people moving to the coastal margins and into harm's way. Despite advances in warning strategies and reduction in track forecast error, this increase in fatalities is expected to continue for as long as people migrate towards the shore. [Anthony Arguez and James B. Elsner (April 11, 2001). [http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~jelsner/HTML/Research/papers/mortality/mortal.html Trends in U.S. Tropical Cyclone Mortality During the Past Century.] Retrieved on 2007-05-18.]

Reconstruction and repopulation

While tropical cyclones may well seriously damage settlement, total destruction encourages rebuilding. For example, the destruction wrought by Hurricane Camille on the Gulf coast spurred redevelopment, greatly increasing local property values. However, disaster response officials point out that redevelopment encourages more people to live in clearly dangerous areas subject to future deadly storms. Hurricane Katrina is the most obvious example, as it devastated the region that had been revitalized after Hurricane Camille. Many former residents and businesses do relocate to inland areas away from the threat of future hurricanes as well.

In isolated areas with small populations, tropical cyclones may cause enough casualties to contribute to the founder's effect as survivors repopulate their place. For example, around 1775, a typhoon hit Pingelap Atoll, and in combination with a subsequent famine, reduced the island's population to a low level. Several generations after the disaster, as many as 10% of Pingelapese have a genetic form of color-blindness called achromatopsia.cite web|title=The vision of Typhoon Lengkieki |author=Val C. Sheffield |url=http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v6/n7/full/nm0700_746.html |work=Nature Medicine |pages=746-7 |year=2000 |accessdate=2007-05-25] This is due to one of the survivors of the depopulation brought on by the typhoon having a mutated gene, which the population bottleneck caused to be at a higher-than-usual level in succeeding generations.

Effects on Natural Resources

Geomorphology

Tropical cyclones reshape the geology near the coast by eroding sand from the beach as well as offshore, rearranging coral, and changing dune configuration onshore. Their rain water gets absorbed into stalagmites within caves, creating a record of past tropical cyclone impacts.

Coastal Ridges

Waves and storm surges accompanying tropical cyclones erode undersea sands, erode shell deposits, break off corals from near shore reefs in their paths, and carry all this detritus landwards in a rolling wave of material that is deposited onshore, above highest astronomical tide as a ridge of sand, shell and coral.Nott, J.F (2003) . [http://www.tesag.jcu.edu.au/staff/jnott/abstracts/JGR_paper.pdf "Intensity of Prehistoric Tropical Cyclones", "Journal of Geophysical Research", 108(D7)] ] For example, each severe tropical cyclone (ie Category 4-5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale) crossing northeast Australia's tropical coastline since the last significant change in sea levels (about 5000 years ago) has 'emplaced' such ridges within the coastal landscape forming, in some places, series of ridges and a geomorphological record of highest magnitude cyclones hitting the coast over 3000 - 5000 years. Nott, J.F: "Global Climate change and the tropical cyclone palaeo-record in Australia", "Paper Delivered to Cyclone Science Seminar, James Cook University, 27 September 2007"] Eyewitness accounts verify ridges of this kind are formed by severe tropical cyclones and two clear examples cited are the convert|18|km|mi long, convert|35|m|ft wide, convert|3.5|m|ft|lk=on high coral shingle ridge deposited on Funafuti Atoll (Central South Pacific) by Tropical Cyclone Bebe in October 1971, and the large coral shingle ridge deposited on Jaluit Atoll (Marshall Islands) by Typhoon Ophelia in January 1958. In tropical northeast Australia, an intense tropical cyclone hit in March 1918 (crossing over the town of Innisfail), at which time there were eyewitness accounts of a convert|4.5|m|ft|lk=on to convert|5.1|m|ft|lk=on high ridge of pumice being deposited by that cyclone's surge as it crossed the coast.).

Limestone Cave Stalagmites

When tropical cyclones cross land, thin layers of calcium carbonate of unusually 'light' Oxygen isotope (Oxygen-18) composition are deposited onto stalagmites in limestone caves up to convert|300|km|mi from the cyclone's path.

As the cloud tops of tropical cyclones are high and cold, and their air is humid - their rainwater is 'lighter'. In other words, the rainfall contains significantly higher quanties of unevaporated Oxygen-18 than other tropical rainfall. The isotopically lighter rainwater soaks into the ground, percolates down into caves, and, within a couple of weeks, Oxygen-18 transfers from the water into calcium carbonate, before being deposited in thin layers or 'rings' within stalagmites. A succession of such events created within stalagmites maintain a record of cyclones tracking within a convert|300|km|mi radius of caves going back centuries, millennia, or even millions of years.Frappier, A.B. et al. (2007) "Stalagmite stable isotope record of recent tropical cyclone events", ' 'Geology' ', 35(2): 111–114] ]

At Actun Tunichil Muknal cave in central Belize, researchers drilling stalagmites with a computer- controlled dental drill accurately identified and verified evidence of isotopically light rainfall for 11 tropical cyclones occurring over a 23 year period (1978-2001).

At the Chillagoe limestone caves in northeast Australia (convert|130|km|mi inland from Cairns) researchers identified and matched evidence of isotopically light rainfall with 100 years of cyclone records, and from this have created a record of tropical cyclones from 2004 back to 1200 A.D. (an 800 year record).

Landscapes

Severe tropical cyclones defoliate tropical forest canopy trees, remove vines and epiphytes from the trees, break tree crown stems, and cause tree falls. The degree of damage they do along their paths, at a landscape level (i.e. > convert|10|km|mi), can be catastrophic yet variable and patchy. [Turton, S.M. and A. Dale (2007) [http://www.wettropics.gov.au/res/downloads/cyclone/TurtonDaleReport2007.pdf A preliminary assessment of the environmental impacts of Cyclone Larry on the forest landscapes of northeast Queensland, with reference to responses to natural resource management issues in the aftermath, "Journal Report Submitted to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology": 2] ] Stripping trees and scattering forest debris also provides fuel for wildfires, such as a blaze that lasted three months in 1989 and burned 460 square miles of forest that had been stripped by Hurricane Gilbert.cite book|title=Natural Hazards of North America|publisher=National Geographic Society|month=July|year=1998|format=map]

* Wind velocity gradients or horizontal wind shear (size of cyclone, the intensity of cyclone, proximity to the cyclone, and local scale cyclonic convection effects).

* Degree of exposure (windward exposure, leeward acceleration, or local topographic sheltering/shading); and

* Ecosystem species composition and forest structure

Assessments of cyclone damage done to tropical rainforest landscapes in northeast Australia, have produced the following typology for describing and 'mapping' the variable impacts they have along their paths, as follows: [Unwin, G. L., Applegate G. B., Stocker G. C. & Nicholson D. I. (1988) "Initial effects of tropical cyclone Winifred on forests in north Queensland", "Proceedings ofEcological Society of Australia". 15: 283-296]

# Severe and extensive closest to the centre of cyclone: impact appears to be multidirectional and is evidenced by crowns of most trees having been broken, smashed or windthrown
# Severe and localised closer to the cyclone centre than its edge: direction of the destructive winds is clearly identifiable, and severe canopy disruption is limited to the windward aspect of these forested areas
# Moderate canopy disturbance closer to cyclone edge than its centre: most of the tree stems are still standing, with only some treefalls, and most of the damage is the defoliation of the canopy and branch breakage;
# Slight canopy disturbance closest to cyclone edge: occasional stem fall or branch breakage, with most of the damage consisting of loss of foliage on the forest edges only, subsequently followed by leaf damage and heavy leaf litter falls.

ee also

*List of wettest tropical cyclones by country

References