The North Atlantic Oscillation, or the NAO, governs most of Europe’s climate. A high NAO index brings heavy storms and rainfall. This was the case in 1315. That spring, it rained for most of May, July, and August. This was followed by a cold spell in August and September.
he Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a 1-5 rating based on the hurricane's present intensity. This is used to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a hurricane landfall. Wind speed is the determining factor in the scale, as storm surge values are highly dependent on the slope of the continental shelf in the landfall region. Note that all winds are using the U.S. 1-minute average. Category One Hurricane: Winds 74-95 mph (64-82 kt or 119-153 km/hr).
The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the 15th October in that year, it was the worst storm to reach Britain for over 200 years. The days preceding the storm a depression was developing over the Bay of Biscay, just west of France. This depression was slowly drifting northwards towards the British Isles building up intensity as it went. Weather stations reported that the severe weather would not reach further north than the English Channel, therefore England were not mentally or physically ready to cope with a storm of this magnitude. The impacts of the storm were great, with wind speeds recorded of up to 120mph in Sussex and Kent.
Throughout the afternoon an unprecedented amount of rain fell, estimated at over 1.400 million litres in just 2 hours, nearly 200,000 litres a second. The rainfall quickly made its way into rivers that rose at an alarming rate as they flowed through Boscastle. 9 minutes later a flood watch was issued. 3 hours and 1 minute later at 15:00 the first of many power cuts where caused by lightning, 30 minutes later, the river valency began to flood. 16 minutes later there was a reported rise of 2m in one hour.
It refers to the appearance of colder than average sea surface temperatures in the central and East Equatorial Pacific. It may follow El Nino but it has occurred less frequently. They are both short term climatic changes and are amongst the most powerful phenomena on earth as they affect the climate over almost half of the earth. During a normal year, there is high air pressure off the coast of South America with descending air. In the western Pacific, there is low air pressure as warn, moist air rises, cools and condenses, forming rain clouds which give heavy convectional rainfall.
With a severe earthquake the county could be at risk for a Tsunami. Severe weather and flooding also presents a challenge in this area as annual precipitation reaches an average of 36 inches, and low-lying areas are susceptible to flooding (WCDEM, 2003 & Whatcom County,
The three phases that the storm goes through are: tropical depression, tropical storm, and then a hurricane (Mehta, 2010, para.2). According to Naik (2010), thunderstorms drift over warm ocean waters, the warm air in them combines with the warm air over the ocean surface and starts rising. The warm air then starts to rise and low pressure is created at the surface of the storm. As the trade winds which blow in opposite directions they start propelling the formation in a circular motion (Naik). The winds of a hurricane can exceed up to 200 mph.
Evaluate the success of strategies used to reduce the impact of tropical storms. (30marks) Tropical storms are intense, low pressure systems which form over warm oceans and have very high wind speeds which reach over 150mph. A tropical storm can bring destruction whatever the category, the impacts which a tropical storms cause cannot be stopped but can be reduced by having effective strategies in place. In this essay I will be evaluating the success of strategies which are used to reduce these storm impacts. The first strategy I will evaluate is the use of levees in New Orleans, USA.
Because the state is located near the tropics and winds blow towards it from the African coasts on the Equator, Florida is especially a susceptible place to hurricanes. When thunderstorms along the west coast of Africa travel out over warm ocean waters that have a temperature of at least eighty degrees Fahrenheit combine with winds from around the equator, a hurricane is formed (West). As the storm travels westward, it comes in
Hurricanes, also called typhoons in other parts of the world, start as thunderstorms. Like all thunderstorms in the northern hemisphere, they rotate counterclockwise. They usually move from the Northwest Coast of Africa toward Central and North America pushed by equatorial trade winds. When the thunderstorms reach, or come into, warmer waters with easterly winds, they then strengthen into first a tropical depression, and then it could intensify into a tropical storm, and finally a hurricane. Hurricanes range from a category one hurricane all the way to a category five reaching winds up to one hundred seventy miles per hour plus.