Climatic_Hazards-Causes,Impacts_and_Response

Climatic Hazards-Causes,Impacts and Response a) Discuss the atmospheric processes responsible for (i) strong winds (ii) drought. Strong winds are largely caused by differences in pressure over areas of the land. Wind direction is always from low pressure to high pressure as if a high pressure system is dominant over an area the air can only rise and once it has risen the only place for it to move is to a low pressure area. This determines how fast or weak the winds are. The closer the isobars are the quicker the air can move from high to low pressure thus the winds are stronger. Very strong winds can be found around the equator because the intense heating of the land means that the air rises more quickly. Hurricanes form in this area near the Americas. They develop as hot seawater, which can acquire temperatures of 27’c or above, heats the air above it. As this air starts to rise it draws moisture up form the sea like a vacuum. An area of intense low pressure is formed in the centre, this is called the eye of the storm and air, pressure, people, due, very, high, area, winds, supplies, over, children, wind, rain, low, force, poor, often, occur, money, land, lack, form, water, tornadoes, tornado, thousands, strong, sea, one, move, loss, local, life, ledc’s, hazards, emergency, east, drought, deflected, clouds, caused, because, areas, africa, under, two, sucked, storm, state, starts