Climatic Hazards

Causes

• Hight presure Sahel area.
• Desertification

Development

• New Dams
• Re-use waste water 
• Water Transfers
• Develop ground water sources.

Management

• Ration water
• Improve technology
• Increase cost of water
• Reduce water usage (dryland farming).

• East Coast, especially Boston and Washington and Lasted 5 Days.

Cause

• High Pressure over Canada forced air from rockies to cross the cold interior.
• That then met warm moist air of the coast.

Hazards

• Snow 40-80cm deep.
• Very low temperatures and Wind chill.
• 75 km/h winds and blizzards.

Impacts

• 27 deaths.
• Transport paralysed.
• Schools closed.
• Major power cuts, 95,000 homes in West Virginia.

• 2nd most polluted US city 2008
• Smog resulted from nitrous oxide reacting with hydrocarbons in intense sunlight

Causes - 11 million vehicles, Sunny dry climate, Basin effect, Lack of public Transport.

Impacts 

• Crops wilted due to lack of light
• Children have 10-15% reduction in lung capacity
• 1600 premature deaths due to respiratory problems each year
• Dangerous levels of smog on 100 days per annum

Solutions

• Clean Air Act 1963 - reduces smoke pollution
• Ban on all outdoor burning
• Exaust fume control on cars, fines if vehcles dont meet standards
• Calfornia Air Resources Board (CARB) set up in 1967 to set air quality standards

Environmental

• Trees blown down.
• Flooding and waterlogging.
• Landslides, Soil creep and soil erosion.

Social

• Dampness leads to bronchitis.
• Wind damages housing.
• Wet roads and flooding lead to poor driving conditions.

Economic

• Lack of sun, waterlogging and wind damage crops.
• Strong wind halt flights and close bridges.
• Winds bring down powerlines.

Cause - A series of intense anticyclones forced depressions north or south of the UK

Hazards

• Lowest rainfall since 1921, 77% below average
• High temperatures, 37'C recorded
• Thunderstorms as air was so dry

Imacts

• Sunstroke and Skin cancer.
• 900 deaths due to poor air quality
• Water Shortage led to hosepipe bans
• Roads melted and railways buckled
• Fires as the land was so dry.
• Reservoirs dried up (50% below capacity)

Earths Temperature due to rise by 6'C this century

Causes 

• Burning fossil fuels
• Transport
• Deforestation
• Melting permafrost
• Farming (Methane)
• Waste Tips producing methane

Impacts

• Sea Level Rise leads to increased flooding 
• Change in crop pattern leads to famine
• Reduced rainfall leads to drought
• Change in economic activity (less winter sport resorts)
• Wildlife adapt or become extinct.

An area including Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand covered, 70 Million people affected.

Causes - Burning of Forest, High Pressure, Lack of alternative fuels, Inadequate fire fighting.

Impacts 

• Short Term - Schools closed, loss of tourism, ships re-routed, 60k treated for smog illnesses.
• Long Term - 275 died from starvation, Deaths from cholera, loss of biodiversity

Reactions

• Put out fires using water bombers from USA and fire fighters from Austrailia
• Stopped fires being lit by enforcing laws.
• Start to develop different fuels llike renewable energy 

Environmental

• Drought and Fires.
• Trees wilt in heat as they need more water. 
• Flash floods when it rains as ground is hard and dry.
• Rivers and lakes Dry up.
• Soil subsidence.

Social

• Poor health such as heat stroke due to heat/fog/cold.
• High pollen count.
• Fog causes poor driving conditions

Economic

• Frost kills farmers crops.
• Heat buckles Railways and melts roads.
• Forrest fires.

• Developed along a squall line along a cold front.
• 4 tornadoes formed from 2 supercells.
• Cut a row of damage 400m wide and 66km long.
• Wind speed reached 320 km/h and it lasted 10 hours.

Impacts

• 25 killed and 230 injured.
• $92 million of damage.
• Gas leaks.
• 25,000 had no power.
• 225 homes destroyed.

Responses

• $2.4 million of state aid for housing.
• Long term grants for rebuilding.
• Rescue services on site very quickly.

Characteristics

Impacts

• Primary - 121 deaths, 90% homes damaged, 50% population homeless
• Secondery - Roads blocked by debris, Flooding, Power lines down
• Tertiary - GDP fell 3%, $150 million of aid, loss of tourism.

• Small area of fast moving air.
• Air is rising.
• Tend to move West to East.
• Air is rising so clouds develop and brings rain.
• Winds are strong and blows anticlockwise.
• Rarely last more than a day.

Summer

• Mild in day, warm at night as cloud trap heat in.
• High precipitation, often Thunderstorms.
• Strong and gusty winds.

Winter

• Mild in day warm at night.
• High precipitation usually rain but can be snow.
• Strong gusty wind that can produce wind chill.

• Winds on 64 - 118 km/h
• Seasonal: June - November
• Formation
  • High humidity releases latent heat
  • Sea temperature of more than 26'C and at lease 60m deep
  • More than 5' North or South of the Equator for the Coriolis effect
  • Two moist airstreams meet and the denser one undercuts the other
• Break up over land because of little moisture and friction, also break up over cool seas.
• Types of Impacts
  • Primary - Homes Destroyed, Deaths and injuries
  • Secondary - Flooding, Pollution, Diseases, Fires, Transport disrupted
  • Tertiary - Destruction of Infrastructure, loss of jobs.

• Level 5 Hurricane.
• Storm Surge of 5m.
• Winds of 195 km/h.
• 49% of city is under sea level so water could not escape.

Impacts

• Short Term - 1836 dead and 705 missing, 90% population evacuated, Loss of power, Looting,                      Water pollution, Transport disrupted.
• Long Term - Water and mosquito diseases, 1 million people refuse to return, higer insurance,                      30 oil platforms and 9 refineries put out of action (oil price rise).

Response

• Salvation army set up 178 canteens.
• Over 1 million housed out of the area.
• US Army reinforced 354km of levees.
• Superdome used as shelter but resulted in crime deaths and diseases.  

• Large area of slow-moving air
• High pressure means air sinks
• As air sinks it warms
• Air is sinking so no clouds form and clear skies
• light winds usually clockwise in the N.hemisphere
• Usually ends in thunderstorms

Summer

Winter

• Violent rotating small-scale wind storms 
• Can reach 500 km/h

Formation

• Seasonal - June to November in the N. Hemisphere.
• Air masses differing in temperature and humidity meet.
• Anvil thunderclouds (Supercells) exsist.
• Downward current of cool air and almost constant vertical conditions.
• Very unstable air - surface winds converge or very hot surfaces.
• Flat land, easily disrupted by relief.
• Small and short lived but highly destructive.

Impacts

• Primary - Destruction of buildings and crops, Deaths.
• Secondary - Cost of rescue, Loss of power, Depression. 
• Tertiary - Cost of rebuilding, loss of jobs.