Tsunami

There are several events that have happened that have an affect on the place that was hit and for people that live in the west coast to be aware that one day it can happen to them. The tsunami of 2004 in India, I remember that all my family would tell me that if a tsunami hits I will be first to be taken. My aunt´s family lives in Santa Ana California while I lived on the west coast of Newport Beach. I came to believe that I wave would actually take my house and I would be floating by my cousin´s house. As a child I had a big imagination.

The phenomenon "tsunami" is a series of traveling ocean waves of extremely long length generated by disturbances associated primarily with earthquakes occurring below or near the ocean floor. Underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides can also generate tsunamis. In the deep ocean, their length from wave crest to wave crest may be a hundred miles or more but with a wave height of only a few feet or less. They cannot be felt aboard ships nor can they be seen from the air in the open ocean. In deep water, the waves may reach speeds exceeding 500 miles per hour.
Tsunamis are a threat to life and property to anyone living near the ocean. For example, in 1992 and 1993 over 2,000 people were killed by tsunamis occurring in Nicaragua, Indonesia and Japan. Property damage was nearly one billion dollars. The 1960 Chile Earthquake generated a Pacific-wide tsunami that caused widespread death and destruction in Chile, Hawaii, Japan and other areas in the Pacific. Large tsunamis have been known to rise over 100 feet, while tsunamis 10 to 20 feet high can be very destructive and cause many deaths and injuries.
The Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, comprised of 26 participating international Member States, monitors seismological and tidal stations throughout the Pacific Basin. The System evaluates potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes and disseminates tsunami warning information. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTW) is the operational center of the Pacific TWS. Located in Honolulu, Hawaii, PTWC provides tsunami warning information to national authorities in the Pacific Basin.

CYCLONES

Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are tropical cyclones with maximum sustained wind speed exceeding 119 km/h near their centres, and every year responsible of thousands of victims.

"Hurricane", "cyclone" and "typhoon" are different terms for the same weather phenomenon which is accompanied by torrential rain and maximum sustained wind speeds exceeding 119 kilometers per hour. In the western North Atlantic, central and eastern North Pacific, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, such a weather phenomenon is called "hurricane". In the western North Pacific, it is called "typhoons". In the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, it is called “cyclone". In western South Pacific and southeast India Ocean, it is called “severe tropical cyclone.” In the southwest India Ocean, it is called “tropical cyclone.”

Between 1886 and 1998, out of the 566 Atlantic hurricanes in the Atlantic, twenty two have grown as strong as to become Category 5 hurricanes with maximum sustained wind speeds exceeding 249 km/h. The worst recent tropical cyclones include Hurricane Mitch (Honduras) in 1998, Hurricane Katrina (USA) in 2005 and most recently hurricane Gustav (Haiti) in 2008, and severe cyclone Nargis (Myanmar) in 2008.

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was devastating, with casualties and widespread destruction in the Caribbean, Central America and the United States of America. For the first time on record, six consecutive tropical cyclones made landfall on the United States of America, and two major hurricanes (Gustav and Ike) hit Cuba.

In the East Pacific, sixteen named tropical cyclones were recorded in 2008, of which seven evolved into hurricanes and two of them into major hurricanes at Category 3 or higher. In the Western North Pacific, twenty two named tropical cyclones were recorded in 2008, ten of which were classified as typhoons compared to the long-term average of twenty seven and fourteen, respectively.

The Western North Pacific has been hit several times in September - October 2009 by numerous typhoons such as Ondoy, Ketsana, Parma, Lupit and Mirinae, causing many casualties.

El Niño vs. La Niña

When I was in second grade, which it were the years of nineteen-ninety seven and nineteen-ninety eight, I experience El Niño. For two months in Newport Beach, California there was rain. There was a heavy rainfall of about twelve inches. As my school was by the beach most sea level rooms were flooded. During El Niño all we did was stay inside & played board games. There were periods when the rain would stop and then in the night the rain would start again.

 El Niño is a change in the wind direction. Air pressure differences in India the pressure is lower and high at the date line. El Niño is known as the Southern oscillation. During the El Niño, the trade winds weaken. The sea surface temperature raises well above long term averages over the central eastern tropical pacific. These areas will have heavy rain shifting from the western into the central tropical pacific. El Niño is the warm phase of the tropical atmosphere/ocean interaction. El Niño influences the prevailing circulation of the atmosphere in middle latitudes mostly in the winter. There are significant pacific surfaces temperature changes as well as atmosphere. Ocean circulations patterns change and collapse important Southern American fisheries. El Niño begins when the air pressure gradient of the tropical pacific starts to weaken. The air pressure falls over the eastern tropical pacific and rises over the western pacific. The warm surface of water will slowly drift eastward over the tropical pacific. Anomalies for El Niño are normally between two to three Celsius degrees below the long term average. As El Niño affects the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean is experiencing La Niña.

            In contrast, La Niña is the cold phase of the tropical atmosphere/ocean interaction. The air pressure differences high in India and low in the date line. La Niña the northern oscillation. In addition, the trade winds during La Niña are extremely strong across the tropical pacific with low sea surface temperatures, which are lower than usual, and the central and eastern tropical pacific. In the eastern tropical pacific, there are strong trade winds and upwelling.

Rain

Precipitation has many forms. The one form I have experience is rain. Rain develops when growing cloud droplets become too heavy to remain in the cloud and as a result, fall toward the surface as rain. Rain can also begin as ice crystals that collect each other to form large snowflakes. As the falling snow passes through the freezing level into warmer air, the flakes melt and collapse into rain drops. Before it can rain, there must moisture or humidity in the air. In order for there to be moisture in the air, water must evaporate. The air is most moist by the oceans and to a lesser extent large lakes like the Great Lakes. Air flows over these large bodies of water picking up moisture as it evaporates off the surface. The air then flows over the land and to us it feels like a form of humidity. If air rises, such as up a mountain slope, or when encountering a cold front or warm front, the air cools and the moisture condenses into clouds and rain. As a result, areas near oceans and lakes, and areas where the air flows off an ocean and up a mountain, are likely to get a lot of rain. Where weather fronts are seen those areas will have a lot of rain. Other areas that are near mountains will not see rain as much an example is our home state Arizona. The downsides of the mountain meteorologist call this a "rain shadow." This occurs because most of the moisture falls out as rain as the air rises up the one side of the mountain. Then, the air dries as it descends down the other side. This is another reason why Arizona and much of the Rocky Mountain region is much drier than other places in the country.