Tropical Cyclones

     Tropical cyclons only form over warm ocean water near the equator. The warm air rises, which causes an area of lower pressure below. They usually form near the tropics, between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The humidity, rainfall and winds should be high.
     They are given different names, depending on where they occur. “Hurricane” is the name given to systems that develop on the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. “Typhoons” are the ones that develop in the western North Pacific and Philippines. In the Indian and the south Pacific Ocean they are called “cyclons”. Each cyclon has a name picked from a list; when a hurricane is very bad in comparison to the others, that name is taken off the list.
     There is a scale to measure them: the Saffer-Simpson scale. It has a 1 to 5 rating, and it estimates property damage. Cyclones or hurricanes that reach category 3 are considered major hurricanes because they can cause casualties.
     Some consequences might be floods, heavy winds, diseases, injured or dead people, diseases and an impact on the economy. Thanks to technology (satellite images) cyclones can be predicted, and people can be warned about them, which helps reduce the damage.