Some Types of Extreme Weather

The extreme weather events – such as hurricanes, floods, droughts and heat waves – are increasing because of climate change.




*Hurricanes
A hurricane is a storm system that is characterized by a low pressure center and numerous thunderstorms. These thunderstorms produce strong winds and flooding rain that detroy all where it occurs.
Depending on its location and strength, it can be referred by many other names, such as typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone.

*Floods
A flood is the result of a strong storm whose rain is not completely absorved by the soil and it can cause serious damages.

*Drought
A drought is a period of unusually persistant dry weather that persists long enough to cause serious problems such as crop damage and/or water supply shortages. There are actually four different ways that drought can be defined: Meteorological, Agricultural, Hydrological and Socioeconomic;

*Heat Wave
A heat wave is caused by a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity or not.
Some tips for Heat Wave: http://www.wkyc.com/weblog/weather/2007/07/heat-wave-preparedness.html

Test your knowlegde: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/games/kidsquiz.html

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooding

http://www.noaawatch.gov/themes/droughts.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_wave