Basic Information
Tropical cyclones - also often called hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression or simply cyclone - are devastating rotating storm systems.
In the Western Hemisphere, tropical cyclones are measured on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, based on wind speed and amount of damage the storm does. Other parts of the world use other scales.
up to 62 km/h (38 mph) Tropical Depression
63-117 km/h (39-73 mph) Tropical Storm (system officially becomes a "named storm")
118-153 km/h(74-95 mph) Category 1 Hurricane (No significant damage to building structure; may uproot trees and produce some coastal flooding)
154-177 km/h (96-110 mph) Category 2 Hurricane (May damage roofing material, poorly constructed doors and windows. Mobile homes badly damaged. Small craft may break moorings)
178-209 km/h (111-130) Category 3 Hurricane (Major hurricane; Structural damage to wood frame houses; mobile homes destroyed and roofs peeled off. Major flooding extends far inland.)
210-249 km/hr (131-155) Category 4 Hurricane (Extensive damage to homes; Mobile homes leveled; Major flooding)
over 250 km/hr (156 mph) Category 5 Hurricane (Only the strongest buildings survive.)
In many tropical cyclones, more damage is done by flooding than by wind, due to the storm surge. The intense low pressure of the storm draws up the sea water like a tide, except moving at high speeds. The storm surge, rather than the high winds, are what broke the levees of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and leveled the city of Galveston, Texas in the great storm of 1900.
People who live in cyclone-prone areas are often well adapted to the phenomenon and take most cyclones in their stride. For example, Hong Kong has a well-established system of tropical storm warnings, and in the event of the higher-level warnings being raised, more or less everyone gets the day off work. Although it is dangerous to go outdoors (falling scaffolding and signs are a particular hazard), cyclone days become an informal holiday, to be spent at home, or meeting friends in bars and restaurants. Many bars offer free or heavily discounted drinks during typhoons.
List of Tropical Cyclones
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Maybe the name for the center of tropical cyclones - the so-called "eye" - is more than a metaphor. Maybe cyclones are strange, gigantic but short-lived creatures that stare out into the vastness of space?
- Or perhaps the storm is the area of turbulance surrounding a dimensional vortex. The eye could be a gateway into another dimension!
- The party atmosphere that descends on Hong Kong's bar areas during a Level 8 storm warning has undertones of Carnival. Links might be fruitfully pursued to a celebration of the ancient gods of storms and the sea.
- The PCs may be trying to help evacuate an area threatened by a storm, or perhaps just trying to get out themselves.
- Perhaps it's too late to evacute and the PCs must batten down in whatever shelter they can find
- The classic Humphrey Bogart film Key Largo has just such a setting
