Visuals

Making a Weather Station

JARGON BUSTER

Eye (of the hurricane):

The "eye" is a roughly circular area of comparatively light winds and fair weather found at the center of a severe tropical cyclone. Although the winds are calm at the axis of rotation, strong winds may extend well into the eye. There is little or no precipitation and sometimes blue sky or stars can be seen. The eye is the region of lowest surface pressure and warmest temperatures aloft - the eye temperature may be 10 C [18 F] warmer or more at an altitude of 12 km [8 mi] than the surrounding environment, but only 0-2 C [0-3 F] warmer at the surface (Hawkins and Rubsam 1968) in the tropical cyclone. Eyes range in size from 8 km [5 mi] to over 200 km [120 mi] across, but most are approximately 30-60 km [20-40 mi] in diameter (Weatherford and Gray 1988).

Eye Wall:

Located just outside of the eye is the eye wall. This is the location within a hurricane where the most damaging winds and intense rainfall is found. The image below is of a hurricane (called cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere).Eye walls are called as such because oftentimes the eye is surrounded by a vertical wall of clouds. The eye wall can be seen in the picture below as the thick ring surrounding the eye.
At the surface, the winds are rushing towards the center of a hurricane -- forcing air upwards at the center. The coriolis force acts on these surface winds, and in the Northern Hemisphere, the deflection is to the right. The convergence at the eye wall is so strong here that the air is being lifted faster and with more force here than any other location of the hurricane. Thus, the moisture transport from the ocean and subsequent latent heat production is maximized.

Rain Sheild

The rain shield is a solid or nearly solid area of rain that typically becomes heavier as one approaches the eye. The outer edge is well defined and its distance from the eye varies greatly from storm to storm. The wind, both sustained and peak gusts, keeps increasing as one moves through the rain shield toward the storm's eye.

Spiral Rain Bands

Radiating outward from the eye wall one can see a banded structure within the clouds. These clouds are called either spiral rain bands (or spiral bands).There are sometimes gaps in between these bands where no rain is found. In fact, if one were to travel between the outer edge of the hurricane to its center, one would normally progress from light rain to dry back to slightly more intense rain again over and over with each period of rainfall being more intense and lasting longer until reaching the eye. Upon exiting the eye and moving towards the edge of the hurricane, one would see the same events as they did going in, but in opposite order.

Tropical Dpression:

Its an alternate name for hurricane.

Landfall:

Landfall is the time or place at which a tropical cyclone or waterspout moves onto land after previously being over water. For tropical cyclones, this is typically the point at which the center of the storm's eye comes ashore. This is also usually the area where most of the damage is done, since on one hand there is usually not much to be destroyed on water, and on the other hand cyclones weaken quickly after they have moved onto land.

Trade winds:

The trade winds are a pattern of wind that are found in bands around the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds are the prevailing winds in the tropics, blowing from the high-pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the low-pressure area around the equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the northern hemisphere and from the southeast in the southern hemisphere.