by Nayab Naseer

Created on: March 15, 2009

WHAT ARE SUPER STORMS

Storms are atmospheric disturbance manifested in strong winds accompanied by rain, snow, or other precipitation and often by thunder and lightning.

There is no strict definition for what a super storm is. Very powerful storms that have strong hurricane-type force winds and cause snowstorms, blizzards, storm surge, beach erosion, and flooding are categorized as super storms. They typically occur during the winter.

The Saffir-Simpson scale rates hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5 according to wind speeds and destructive potential. Super Storms reach Category 5, where winds blow continuously above 250 kilometers an hour (155 miles per hour). The largest ever super storm, the 1979 Pacific typhoon Tip, sent gale-force winds across more than 650 miles (1,000 kilometers).

HOW STORMS SYSTEMS DEVELOP

When air is heated, they become less dense and tend to rise. When the temperatures at the surface of the oceans reach 27 degree centigrade, there is very little wind shear or difference in wind speeds at the surface and aloft, and waves are absent, the warm, moist air over the ocean tend to rise rapidly upward from near the surface. This result in lesser air near the surface and creates a sudden low pressure. Air in surrounding areas with higher air pressure follows the law of nature and rush in to this newly formed low-pressure area. Since the heat is intense, this "new" air too quickly becomes warm and moist and they too rise rapidly, repeating the process. The surrounding air swirls to take the place of the rising air, intensifying the process.

By this process, the moist air propel themselves to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) or more, where they finally condense into spiraling exhaust jets of cirrus clouds. Meanwhile, if the rapid rise of moist air continues, these clouds intensify and eventually precipitate. This swirl and precipitation, fuelled by the heat of the sun, and the water of the ocean lead to storms. The swirl forms tornadoes.

When the winds in the rotating storm reach 39 miles per hour, the storm is called a "tropical storm" and when the wind speeds reach 74miles per hour, the storm is officially a "tropical cyclone", or hurricane. In the western Pacific, hurricanes are called typhoons.

HOW STORMS BECOME SUPER STORMS

When ocean temperatures are high, several such storms systems would form simultaneously in different parts of the ocean.

Jet streams are fast flowing and relatively narrow air currents found in the Earth's atmosphere at

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