The Science Quiz | Ins and outs of storms

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Questions:

1. Which country got to name this year’s first major cyclone in the Indian Ocean – Mocha – that made landfall by crossing the Myanmar coast in May?

2. Intense tropical storms with wind speeds exceeding 119 km/hr are known as ‘cyclones ‘when they form over the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. What are such storms that develop in the Northwest Pacific called?

3. Following from Q2, similar storms in the North Atlantic Ocean, called _________, are derived from an Indigenous word that signifies evil spirits and weather gods, and which European explorers sailing in the Caribbean had heard. Fill in the blank.

4. What is the name of the scale that meteorologists use to categorise major storms in the Western hemisphere, based on the intensity of their sustained wind speeds?

5. Tropical storms including cyclones distinctly feature air currents that spin around a relatively more calm, low-pressure area at the centre known as the ___. Fill in the blank.

Visual:

This is a low pressure system over Iceland. The arrows indicate a feature of the rotation of air in a storm around the centre. The seemingly counter-clockwise rotation of the air mass in the northern hemisphere is attributed to X. Name X.

Answers:

1. Yemen

2. Typhoon

3. Hurricane

4. Saffir-Simpson scale

5. Eye

Visual: Coriolis effect