HURRICANES / TROPICAL CYCLONES

Last updated July 2008 - this page now ARCHIVED

Tropical storms have to be studied on Edexcel 'A' syllabus at A2 level. They may also be referenced in the Synoptic paper.

They also appear in most GCSE Specifications

Added CYCLONE NARGIS page.

• There are plenty of US based sites on Hurricanes. To find out what the latest news is in the current hurricane season go HERE.
• USA TODAY has an excellent hurricane page on their site, with lots of useful links. A useful resource is a printable TRACKING CHART which you can use to plot the positional data you can obtain from HERE. (May be worth copying it into Word and reducing it in size as it doesn't fit on standard A4..)
• It starts off with the BASICS OF HOW HURRICANES FORM and more HERE.
• For details on the lists of names for storms in different parts of the world, go HERE.
• I also recommend that you head over to the STORMY WEATHER site. This is American based. Offers a HOTLIST of useful websites, a SCRAPBOOK section which gives you guidance on producing a multimedia presentation and other information.
• Once a hurricane makes landfall its energy usually dissipates quickly, as it needs the energy of the tropical waters. It still remains a danger however, as this online BOOKLET explains. Many students will just consider the strong winds to be a particular problem, but don't consider the huge volumes of rain that are produced from a hurricane.
• The American Red Cross have produced what looks to be an excellent pack of materials called MASTERS OF DISASTER, which helps puils in the early Key Stages to cope with disaster and its consequences. There is a lot of background material available for free download, although the teaching materials themselves can only be downloaded from the American Red Cross. Go HERE for the Hurricane materials.
• The Atlantic Hurricane season starts on the 1st of June. 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of the present system of naming hurricanes using short, easily remembered names in alphabetical order. There have been problems: when Hurricane Camille killed over a hundred people in 1969, women named Camille complained at being associated with such a disaster. The names of the most destructive ones are 'retired' and not used again. Since 1979 names have alternated between male and female. There will never be another Hurricane Katrina, for example.
• The 2004 season was very busy and 2005 has been equally busy. Isabel, Jeanne and CHARLEY were very destructive storms in 2004.. This was followed in September by the disastrous HURRICANE IVAN. Interesting article on the after effects of Hurricane Ivan. Island resorts have used the insurance payouts to revamp their hotels. Clear up continued for over 2 months, cruise ships are returning to the Caribbean and 95% of hotels are open again. The article went on to look at a number of Caribbean locations and give information on their recovery:

Grenada: Over 90% of buildings in Grenada were destroyed, and half the 90 000 population were made homeless and 39 killed. The Red Cross and Oxfam and various volunteers were involved in the rebuilding - many skilled craftsmen were offered free holidays to the island in exchange for their labour. Many of the spice farms have been ruined however, and people are still living in tents.

Cayman Islands: Little Cayman reopened to tourists almost immediately after, but Grand Cayman was worse affected. Many hotels brought renovations forward. The white sand beaches are still there, and the curfew which was imposed to stop looting is now only for 5 hours during the night...

Jamaica: 90% of hotels and attractions are open even in Negril (which was damaged by 30 foot high waves which filled buildings with sand)    (The Observer, 14/11/04)

LESSON RESOURCES

1. TASKS (using Internet / textbooks as a research tool....)

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