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A lesson for your classroom or geography club

Tropical cyclone

All teacher notes · Open the lab

Start projector

The clear eye and tall spiral cloud walls of Hurricane Isabel, photographed from the ISS.
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Astronaut Ed Lu photographed Hurricane Isabel on 13 September 2003. The eye is surrounded by the eyewall's deep convective clouds.

A suggested lesson sequence

Use these stages at your own pace. Pause for students to sketch, compare observations or lead part of the demonstration.

  1. 01

    Observe

    Locate eye, eyewall and rainbands. Trace inflow, ascent and outflow, distinguishing subsidence in the eye.

    Open Observe

  2. 02

    Tinker

    Read the wind profile and its 30 km maximum. Change Intensity; explain why the pressure is model-dependent.

    Open Tinker

  3. 03

    Explain

    How are the strongest winds near the eyewall related to the pressure change towards the centre?

    Open Explain

  4. 04

    Check

    Choose an answer and explain your reasoning. Each question includes feedback.

    Open Check

Rehearse with the model

The same scene and controls as the lab. Load it when you are ready; use Start projector for the full classroom view.

Before the lesson

Identify the eye, eyewall and rainbands of a tropical cyclone and explain how warm ocean water supports its circulation.

Open the model before the lesson and choose a view that makes the important feature easy to see. Drag to rotate, and use the on-screen controls to change one variable at a time. The Controls panel explains the available keyboard shortcuts.

Pause the animation at a useful moment. Ask students what should happen next, then play it to test their explanation.

Guide the demonstration

Locate eye, eyewall and rainbands. Trace inflow, ascent and outflow, distinguishing subsidence in the eye.

Read the wind profile and its 30 km maximum. Change Intensity; explain why the pressure is model-dependent.

Discuss a common misconception

“The calm eye means a tropical cyclone has passed and the danger is over.” The eye is surrounded by the eyewall, where winds and convection are strong. If the eye crosses a location, the opposite eyewall may arrive after a temporary lull, with a changed wind direction. Rainfall, flooding and coastal water levels can also remain hazardous beyond the strongest winds.

Build the explanation

A tropical cyclone draws moist air inward near the surface, with strong ascent in the eyewall and outflow aloft. Its eye has weaker winds and often descending air, distinct from a tornado funnel.

Read the wind profile and its 30 km maximum. Change Intensity; explain why the pressure is model-dependent.

The ideal vortex links wind and pressure through stated assumptions; it does not calculate storm development, rainfall or a track.

Teaching notes

Distinguish a tropical cyclone from a midlatitude windstorm and apply intensity scales only to the storms they describe.

Locate the strongest winds around the eyewall rather than in the relatively calm eye.

Explain storm surge as a rise in sea level driven by the storm, separate from both tsunami waves and ordinary wind waves.

Check understanding

Open Check for 4 questions. Ask students to explain their choice before revealing the answer.

Return to the opening photograph. Ask students to identify one visible feature and explain which part of the model helps account for it.

Look more closely

Use these observations to connect the vocabulary to features students can identify.

Storm surge

An aerial view of damaged buildings and washed-over land on the Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.
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Bolivar Peninsula, Texas, September 2008. NOAA documented coastal damage from Hurricane Ike's storm surge.
Read the definition

Midlatitude cyclone

A broad spiral of white clouds over the Pacific northeast of Japan.
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MODIS observed this extratropical cyclone northeast of Japan on 22 February 2012. Cloud bands trace the low-pressure circulation.
Read the definition

Sources to keep beside the lesson

Same realm