Which statement about the eye of a tropical cyclone is correct?
- A.It has the highest wind speed in the storm
- B.It is a calm core of descending air with the lowest pressure
- C.It is the band of heaviest rainfall
- D.It is found only in temperate cyclones
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, a calm core of descending air with the lowest pressure. The eye is ten to fifty kilometres across, the air inside it sinks rather than rises, the wind is light and the sky can even be clear, while the atmospheric pressure there is the lowest in the whole system. Option A is wrong because the strongest winds blow in the eye wall, the ring of towering cloud that surrounds the eye, which is also why a lull at landfall is dangerous: the second half of the eye wall follows. Option C is wrong for the same reason, as the heaviest rain falls in the eye wall and the spiral bands, not in the eye. Option D reverses the truth, because a well formed eye is a feature of the tropical cyclone, whereas a temperate or extratropical cyclone is built around fronts and has no eye at all.
Read the full article: Cyclones: Naming, IMD Categories and Warning Stages
Practice Questions
View allA cyclone is known by different names in different parts of the world. In Philippines it is called as _______.
- A.willy-willy
- B.hurricane
- C.typhoon
- D.mango shower
Show answer
The Philippines lies in the western North Pacific, and every tropical cyclone of that basin, whether it strikes the Philippines, China or Japan, is called a typhoon.
Read the full explanation →What is the minimum sea surface temperature generally required for a tropical cyclone to form?
- A.About 16.5 degrees Celsius
- B.About 20 degrees Celsius
- C.About 26.5 degrees Celsius
- D.About 36.5 degrees Celsius
Show answer
A tropical cyclone runs on the latent heat released when water vapour condenses, so it needs a sea whose surface is at about 26.5 degrees Celsius or warmer, with that warm water reaching down about fifty metres, so that the churning of the sea does not cool the surface.
Read the full explanation →According to the India Meteorological Department, a system is classified as a super cyclonic storm when the sustained wind speed is at least
- A.118 km/h
- B.167 km/h
- C.222 km/h
- D.300 km/h
Show answer
The India Meteorological Department puts a system in the highest class, super cyclonic storm, when the sustained wind at its centre reaches 222 km/h, which is 120 knots.
Read the full explanation →In which year did the naming of tropical cyclones in the north Indian Ocean begin?
- A.1999
- B.2004
- C.2013
- D.2018
Show answer
The eight countries of the WMO and ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones agreed on a list of names for this basin and began using them in 2004, long after the Atlantic, where naming had been practice for decades.
Read the full explanation →Which body names the tropical cyclones of the north Indian Ocean?
- A.The Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre, New Delhi
- B.The National Disaster Management Authority
- C.The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
- D.The National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting
Show answer
The names themselves are contributed by the thirteen member countries of the panel, but the centre at New Delhi, which the India Meteorological Department runs, takes the next name from the list, announces it when a deep depression strengthens into a cyclonic storm, and issues advisories to all the member…
Read the full explanation →