weather hazards

• A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that forms over warm waters
• the hurricane cross section has an eye, eye wall and rainbands
• hurricanes are know as cyclones or typhoons
• If wind speed reaches 120km/hr it is a hurricane
• A storm surge is an abnormal rise of sea water from a storm
• A tsunami is the displacement of water from an earthquake, landslides or volcanic eruptions
• Cold air sinks in a hurricane because it is dense and warm air rises because is is less dense
• effects of hurricanes are gas outages, power outages, disruption of commercial supplies, damage of infrastructure
• A tornado is a large column of rotating air that is in contact with the cumulonimbus cloud and the earth surface
• Inside thunderclouds warm humid air rises and cols air sinks along with rain or hail
• Spinning currents start horizontally and switch to vertical and drop down from the cloud becoming a tornado
• Tornadoes produce wind up to 480km/hr
• tornadoes last up to 10 mins and for hurricanes it's 5-10 days
• Floods are an overflow of water onto normally dry land
• Flood are caused by rapid snowmelt, heavy rains and storm surges
• positive effects of floods are: encourages crop irrigation, crop germination, breeding of bird and fish species
• Negative effects of flooding are: Threatens animal and human lives, damages homes, reduces access of public services, destroy belongings, damages infrastructure
• A drought is a prolonged dry periodic the natural climate
• Droughts are caused by Low precipitation resulting to low water shortage
• Causes of droughts are rising temperatures, low precipitation, groundwater depletion and human decisions
• Effects of droughts are starvation low crop yields, growing season limited because of diseases and insects on crops, can affect livestock health
• Drought prevention : water harvesting, afforestation, water recycling, reducing over grazing, reducing burning vegetation and planting trees that require less water