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There are several major factors affecting typhoons.

  • Sea Surface Temperatures: Typhoons gain their energy from mositure that evaporates from wam ocean water. A typhoon will weaken if the water is not warm enough.
  • Depth of warm water: The waves of a typhoon tend to churn up the ocean, bringing up cooler water from deeper down. If the warm water extends deep, to about 200 meters or so, a storm can strengthen further.
  • Moisture: Even with warm water, a typhoon can encounter dry air masses, which can enter into a typhoon and weaken it or prevent it from strenghtening.
  • Land: A typhoon that strikes a large land mass will be cut off from its power source and fairly quickly degenerate into a remnant low.
  • Wind shear: Wind shear is a difference in wind speed and direction with altitude. Typhoons develop best when there is little to no wind shear. Strong wind shear disrupts a typhoon's vertically-aligned structure, and can essentially tear a storm apart.
  • Coriolis Force: This an an effect of Earth's rotation that causes large-scale weather systems to rotate. It is strongest at the poles and weakens to zero at the equator. Typhoons depend on this to remain organized. A typhoon that wanders too close to the equator will lose this effect and degenerate into a disorganized cluster of thunderstorms.
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12y ago

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