Alexander (2025) Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-10
• Authors: Marcalee Alexander
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-31568-8.00001-5

Research Groups

Marcalee Alexander, Cornell Rehabilitation, Bethesda Hospital, Baptist Health South Florida, Boynton Beach, FL, USA

Short Summary

This chapter provides a foundational overview of cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons, detailing their definition, formation via the Coriolis effect, classification based on wind speed, and regional naming conventions, while highlighting their destructive impact.

Objective

• To provide a comprehensive overview of the nature, formation, classification, and regional nomenclature of cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global (covering Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, Arctic, Antarctic, and specific landmasses like Florida, North Carolina, Mozambique).
• Temporal Scale: General descriptive overview, with examples of specific events from 2024.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None explicitly stated; this is a descriptive and conceptual overview.
• Data sources: Not specified; information is presented as general knowledge and examples, likely drawing from existing scientific literature and reports.

Main Results

• Cyclones are destructive weather systems characterized by multiple storms rotating around a low-pressure area.
• The Coriolis effect dictates their rotation (counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere) and prevents them from crossing the equator.
• Storms are named based on their region of origin and classified by wind speed (e.g., Category 4, Category 3).
• Regional names include hurricanes (Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, central/northern/eastern Pacific), typhoons (western/northwestern Pacific, northern Indian Ocean), and cyclones (all other areas).
• Different types exist based on latitude of formation, including tropical, extratropical (mid-latitude), polar, and mesocyclones.

Contributions

• Synthesizes fundamental knowledge regarding the definition, physical mechanisms (Coriolis effect), classification, and regional variations of cyclonic weather systems.
• Establishes a foundational understanding of these powerful storms, setting the context for further discussion on their societal impacts.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Alexander2025Cyclones,
  author = {Alexander, Marcalee},
  title = {Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-31568-8.00001-5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-31568-8.00001-5}
}