Geography
Climatic Hazards
Climatic hazards refer to extreme weather events or conditions that pose a threat to human life, property, and the environment. These hazards can include hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, and heatwaves, among others. They are a significant concern for communities and governments, as they can cause widespread destruction and have long-term impacts on ecosystems and economies.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
12 Key excerpts on "Climatic Hazards"
eBook - ePubHazard Mitigation and Preparedness
An Introductory Text for Emergency Management and Planning Professionals
- Dylan Sandler, Anna K. Schwab(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
It is possible (and common) for an event to fit within both categories. The most prevalent meteorological and hydrological hazards that occur in the United States include:- Hurricanes
- Storm surge
- High winds
- Torrential rain
- Severe winter weather
- Freezing rain
- Snowstorms
- Blizzards
- Wind chill
- Extreme cold
- Drought
- Tornadoes
- Waterspouts
- Floods
- Nor’easters
- Heat wave
- Hailstorms
- Lightning storms
- Severe thunderstorms
- Fog
- Avalanche
- Sea Level Rise
In this chapter, we focus on the hydrological and meteorological hazards that occur most frequently throughout the country, have the highest probability of causing significant damage to property, and pose the highest risk to human life and safety. The ultimate goal of learning about weather-related hazards is to be able to lessen their impacts on our communities through mitigation and preparedness activities that specifically target the conditions and likelihood of certain events in a particular area.Throughout this chapter, we describe how these natural hazards are changing over time as a result of climate change. Climate describes the long-term average of weather conditions such as temperature, wind, and rain at a certain place. As the global climate changes, the likelihood of many weather events such as flooding or extreme heat tend to change as well. Of particular concern for many coastal communities is the effect of climate change on the ocean, including rising sea levels. It is important to note that the impacts of climate change are not identical in every community or every region. For more specific information about the likely climatic shifts in your community and the impact this has on natural hazards, contact your state climate office: http://www.stateclimate.org/ .CHOOSING A WAY OF LIFEAwareness of the high probability of hurricanes and other coastal storms on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts is vital to reducing the impacts of wind, waves, rain, and storm surge on properties located along the shoreline. In some coastal communities, regulations and/or personal choice have led residents to adopt various measures to protect property. In towns such as Gulf Shores, Alabama, structures are built on stilts to reduce the risk of flooding caused by hurricanes. Although these beach houses appear to be perched on top of toothpicks, the stilts are effective in elevating the first-floor of the structure above expected flood heights, offering a degree of protection during storms. Many homeowners also install storm shutters on the exterior of the building or have plywood ready to install over windows and doors when coastal storms are predicted. These prepared residents have learned from first-hand experience or from the experience of others that slab-on-grade buildings are not safe in flood-prone areas, or that merely taping windows is not an effective way of preventing damage from hurricane-force winds. These examples indicate the wide range of choices available to property owners living in vulnerable locations such as the coast; property owners can make beneficial choices if they are knowledgeable about natural hazards and their potential impacts on people and property. We will discuss these and other mitigation and preparedness tools in later chapters. For now, we will focus on the hazards’ physical characteristics and their impacts on society.
- Nicolas R. Dalezios(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- IWA Publishing(Publisher)
In general, it is not easy to distinguish between atmospheric and non-atmospheric factors, which cause and produce Climatic Hazards (Maarouf & Munn, 2005). Indeed, increasing diachronic losses emphasize on the significance of socioeconomic factors resulting in vulnerability of communities to hazard events. It is mentioned that a broad distinction can be made between tropical cyclones affecting large areas and severe local storms, along with their associated weather extremes, which involve a sudden impact of very large energy amounts discharged over relatively short periods. On the other hand, specific hazard features result into cumulative hazards when they reach or exceed threshold magnitudes (Gentilli, 1979). Typical examples are heatwaves, cold spells, flood-producing rains, frosts, fogs, droughts, high winds, snow and ice associated with extratropical low-pressure systems, as well as climate change impacts. Furthermore, certain Climatic Hazards originate from human activity. Indeed, these hazards include biological hazards, impacts to human health, the possible risk of accidental modification of climatic patterns, as well as acid rain impacts on natural ecosystems.8.1.1 Climate hazardsPotential atmospheric hazards are considered thunderstorms, tornadoes, tropical and extra-tropical cyclones, lightning, hail, snow, drought, fog, temperature extremes, strong winds, air pollution, as well as climatic change and its impacts. Hazards may arise either from single-element extremes, such as excessively low temperatures causing physiological cold stress or from a combination of elements, such as tropical cyclones with strong wind, storm surge and torrential rain, which cause threats to properties and the population. Annual global economic losses attributed to meteorological disasters have indicated an increase from the 1960s to the early 1990s to almost $90 billion, whereas insured losses increased to over $50 billion (Bruce, 1994).Sudden-impact hazards . Tropical cyclones can be the most deadly and harmful storms on Earth. They are usually characterized by low predictability and fast movement. The major threats to properties and population are caused by three distinct hazards, namely torrential rain, storm waves and surges and gust winds. Severe local storm
- Troy Sternberg(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
The HKH region represents a critical high-elevation environment in central Asia where cryospheric (frozen water) changes along with large-scale atmospheric, hydrological and ecological changes are already observable as warming temperature trends, glacier shrinkage and retreat, permafrost degradation, decreasing length of seasonal snow cover at higher elevations, earlier snowmelt runoff, degradation of grassland in the Tibetan Plateau, changes in Indian monsoonal patterns and local perceptions of a changing climate. Climate change impacts over the last several decades have been observed through significant temperature changes and also through variable rates of retreat of glaciers across the region (Bolch et al. 2012; Gardelle et al. 2012; Yao et al. 2012). Recent research analysing tropospheric temperatures reveals widespread annual warming rates over the entire HKH region of 0.21 ± 0.08°C/decade from 1979 to 2007 (Gautam et al. 2009, 2010). Even greater rates have been observed for the Nepalese Himalayan region specifically, with warming at approximately 0.6°C per decade from 1977 to 2000 (Shrestha et al. 1999). As the evidence suggests, potential impacts of a warming climate are greatest on regional hydro-climatology that may severely impact water resources in this region. Water-related hazards such as flash floods, outburst floods, landslides, debris flows and hazardous weather are projected to increase in the uplands. Recent flooding in the northwestern Himalayan region in the Uttarakhand State of India and western parts of Nepal exposed the vulnerability of these mountain regions to catastrophic flood disasters. Floods and cyclones are likely to increase in frequency, intensity and extent, and are expected to impact the lowland areas such as Bangladesh. At a basin scale, water availability and food security are also threatened by climate change owing to dependence on large-scale irrigation systems. This study provides analysis of climate-related hazards along with the susceptibility of harm and ability to cope of this region.Climatic Hazards and extreme events
Potential changes in climate have spurred a growing interest in Climatic Hazards and extremes that may have profound ecological as well as societal impacts globally (Easterling et al. 2000). One of the few available datasets on occurrences of hazards and disasters is the Emergency Events Database (Guha-Sapir et al. 2015; http://www.emdat.be
- Jonathan Rougier, Steve Sparks, Lisa J. Hill(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Most hydrometeorological hazards are true ‘extremes’ in the sense that they are not distinct events but a consequence of entering the high or low end of local climatic variation (e.g. IPCC, 2011). Exceptions to this are cyclonic storms (such as hurricanes), which are discrete atmospheric patterns of circulating wind. Risk and Uncertainty Assessment for Natural Hazards, ed. Jonathan Rougier, Steve Sparks and Lisa Hill. Published by Cambridge University Press. © Cambridge University Press 2013. Hydrometeorological hazards thus do not have triggers or inception events, though partic- ular atmospheric or oceanic states make them more likely (Section 5.2.2). These ‘extremal’ characteristics lead naturally to probabilistic risk assessments, quantified in terms of the probability of being in a particular region of climate state space (Chapter 6). The term ‘risk’ is defined in Chapter 2. The definition of a hydrometeorological hazard varies by location and by the type of risk assessment. Extremes must be defined relative to regional climatology (mean climate) rather than fixed thresholds, because local acclimatisation and infrastructure affect the seriousness of the impacts. And for risk assessments, definitions range from simple climate-based metrics such as daily maxima, which are used for quantifying the probability of occurrence, to more complex multivariate definitions, for describing impacts on health or infrastructure. Extreme events are typically defined in terms of threshold exceedance, where thresholds are defined relative to local climatology (such as the 90th percentile of daily maximum temperatures at a given location for a particular time period) so as to quantify events of a fixed rarity. Alternatively, an absolute threshold may be used for all locations so as to quantify events of a fixed intensity. Duration of hazard is also important, because the impacts of extreme events are greater when extreme conditions prevail over extended time periods.
eBook - PDF- Joseph P. Stoltman(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
Nevertheless, the anticipated recurrence of these events can be incorpo- rated into such maps to present the geophysical hazards of place (Cutter, 1996), based on past occurrences. Substantial progress is being made by the discipline of geography in identifying and analyzing the physical char- acteristics and mechanisms that lead to natural events and that, in tum, help create natural disasters. It is impossible to develop appropriate forecasting and warning systems, hazard alleviation measures, and mitigation strategies without such knowledge. However, there remains much to be researched. For instance, how well do our physically based models translate precipitation into stream flow in watersheds of different sizes and configurations? What additional data are needed to improve the models? How do different modes of delivery of precipitation such as tropi- cal cyclones, winter precipitation, squall line storms, and frontal rainfall translate into runoff, soil moisture, and flooding for different regional climates with different land cover patterns? And how will all of this be affected by climate change? As already noted, the physical environ- ment is both complex and dynamic, and there is a wide range of events that require continuing examination at numerous spatial and temporal scales. At the same time, human alteration of the geophysical environment cannot be ignored. Changes in land cover affect runoff and heat absorption, the former often increas- ing flood potential and magnitude and the latter exacerbat- ing heat waves. In the same vein, people building homes in remote areas, frequently referred to as the wildland-urban interface, that are naturally at risk to wildfires because of local and regional vegetation and climate characteristics, put themselves at risk, choosing to enjoy the benefits they perceive of such a location and minimizing or ignoring the Natural Hazards and Natural Disasters • 513 risks associated with the natural environment.
eBook - PDF- Tanjina Nur(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Delve Publishing(Publisher)
49 References ............................................................................................... 54 Earthquake and Atmospheric Hazards 26 The climate system of the earth consists of variations in a multifaceted framework where the atmosphere of one region has an interaction with the atmosphere of the other regions. Other factors of this climate system include land, sea, ice, oceans, and its various other forms. In current years, extreme weather conditions are assumed to be caused by human led actions. Variations in any of the components of climatic system, whether it is introduced outside or inside the system, lead to changes in the climate of the earth. In the given chapter, the climate system and the ways to cope with severe weather events are discussed in detail. In later sections, the effects of changes in climate and natural hazards, types of natural hazards and the response of humans to these natural hazards are also highlighted. 2.1. INTRODUCTION Extreme weather conditions consist of unpredictable, unusual, unexpected, severe or sometimes unseasonal events. In current years, few extreme weather conditions are assumed to be caused by human led actions. Studies indicate a huge threat and danger from severe weather condition in the coming future. At times, when there is a severe weather event like drought or a flood, individuals often asks as to whether the condition was caused and led by worldwide warming. There is no straight answer for this question. Weather is always variable and severe weather conditions have always happened. Identifying the trends takes sufficient time, especially when there is a rarity in observational records or if it is even missing in few of the regions. A rise in extreme weather is assumed to be caused due to global warming as increase in temperature impact the parameters of weather in various ways.
eBook - ePubA Practical Introduction to Homeland Security and Emergency Management
From Home to Abroad
- Bruce Oliver Newsome, Jack A. Jarmon(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- CQ Press(Publisher)
6 Natural RisksLearning Objectives and Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to understand the definitions, trends, distribution, and returns of- Natural hazards and threats in general
- Climate change in general
- Weather events in general
- Droughts and heat waves
- Storms, hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons
- Tornadoes
- Floods
- Geological and geomorphic hazards (such as subsistence)
- Seismic hazards (mostly earthquakes)
- Volcanic hazards (such as ejected lava or ash)
- Fires (both human-caused and wild)
- Cosmic hazards (such as solar storms and meteors)
In September 2012, the World Economic Forum surveyed more than 1,000 experts and found them slightly more pessimistic for the next decade of global risks. This shift in opinion arose because persistent economic weakness decreases our ability to tackle environmental challenges. Respondents viewed the failure of climate change adaptation as the environmental risk with the most knock-on effects for the next decade (Howell, 2013).In 2013, the World Economic Forum identified the following six natural risks:- Extreme weather events
- Natural catastrophes of other kinds
- Man-made environmental catastrophes
- Major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
- Water crises
- Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation (World Economic Forum, 2014, p. 13)
- Fiscal crises in key economies
- Structurally high unemployment/underemployement
- Water crises
- Severe income disparity
- Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Greater incidence of extreme weather events...
- Global governance failure
- Food crises
- Failure of a major financial mechanism/institution
- Profound political and social instability (World Economic Forum, 2014, p. 9)
eBook - PDFHandbook of Engineering Hydrology
Modeling, Climate Change, and Variability
- Saeid Eslamian(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
4 Climate Change and Hydrological Hazards 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 54 4.2 Climate Change Impacts ................................................................... 54 Case Study: Climate Change Projection over the Southern United States 4.3 Hydrological Hazards Related to Climate Change ....................... 61 Droughts • Floods 4.4 Summary and Conclusions ............................................................... 68 References ........................................................................................................ 68 Yang Hong University of Oklahoma and National Weather Center Lu Liu University of Oklahoma and Joint Global Change Research Institute Lei Qiao University of Oklahoma and National Weather Center Pradeep Adhikari University of Oklahoma 54 Handbook of Engineering Hydrology 4.1 Introduction Climate is the average weather in a place over a long period of time. Climate influences the Earth through changing temperature, precipitation, snowmelt, and a host of other natural phenomenon, and it is also in turn influenced by the variability on Earth [16]. Regional climate, which is characterized by local atmospheric variability and regional atmosphere–surface interaction, is a combined product of global climate forcing and also of regional atmosphere–land surface feedbacks. Given the assessment of regional climate, the linkage between climate and water resources management could be localized, which allows more relevant and localized practices [17]. As is known that the frequency and areal extent of local extreme weather is of great importance to regional social and economic systems, regional cli-mate therefore plays a significant role in policy making and business management [13,17]. Global climate models (GCMs) have been developed over decades to study the global climate as a whole.
- Michael K. Lindell, Carla Prater, Ronald W. Perry(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The natural hazards are commonly categorized as meteorological, hydrological, or geophysical. ▲ Technological hazards originate in human-controlled processes but are released into the air and water. The most important technological hazards include explosives, flammable materials, toxic chemicals, radiological materials, and biological hazards. Some- times terrorists deliberately release technological hazards to meet political objec- tives. Whether a hazardous release is accidental or deliberate might make a dif- ference in the magnitude of the impact but not the types of impacts emergency managers must confront. You must know how to confront and deal with all types of hazards. This chapter discusses various types of hazards: meteorological, hydrologi- cal, geophysical, and technological. It also examines the risks and the effects and describes how to deal with them. As is the case with other emergencies, you must know how to work with others to deal with hazards. This chapter looks at how to do this when dealing with hazards. 5.1 Meteorological Hazards The main meteorological hazards are severe storms (including blizzards), severe summer weather, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires. 5.1.1 Severe Storms The National Weather Service (NWS) defines a severe storm as one that has wind speeds exceeding 58 mph, that produces a tornado, or that releases hail with a diameter of three-quarters of an inch or greater. The threats from severe storms are: ▲ Lightning strikes ▲ Downbusts and microbursts ▲ Hail ▲ Flash floods Lightning can cause casualties. However, casualties are rare and are easily handled by local emergency medical services units. The bigger threat is that light- ning strikes can initiate wildfires that threaten entire communities. This is espe- cially true during droughts. Downbursts (up to 125 mph) and microbursts (up to 150 mph) are threats to aircraft as they take off or land. This creates a poten- tial for mass casualty incidents.
eBook - PDFGeomorphology and Natural Hazards
Proceedings of the 25th Binghamton Symposium in Geomorphology, Held September 24-25, 1994 at SUNY, Binghamton, USA
- M. Morisawa(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Elsevier Science(Publisher)
Some of these other hazards have been recently reviewed (e.g. Sherman and Nordstrom, 1994), whereas others, such as glacial movement or periglacial effects, are limited in their effect on human populations, or have received little attention as hazards. We have chosen to place geomorphology within the context of the original natural hazards paradigm (White, 1974a) for ease of discussion. We recognize the importance of socio-economic factors in creating hazardous conditions and point to this as an important area of future research. Ultimately, resolution of natural hazards problems must incorporate economics and society, and geomorphologists must be able to recog-nize how the natural systems are affected by human systems. In accordance with the first two goals of the natural hazards paradigm (White, 1974a), we contend that the physical aspects of a hazard event can be evaluated in terms of 5 components: (1) the dynamics of the phys-ical processes; (2) the prediction of the occurrence; (3) the determination of the spatial and temporal char-acteristics; (4) an understanding of the impact of phys-ical characteristics on people's perception; and (5) knowledge about how the physical aspects can be used to formulate adjustments to the event. 4.1. Soil erosion by water Unlike many natural disasters, there is no direct loss of life as a result of soil erosion, but it has a widespread distribution, high remediation costs, a potential for soil deterioration, and reduced food production. Evans (1990) shows that 36% of arable soils in England and Wales are at risk from moderate- to very high-erosion. An evaluation of costs associated with soil erosion in southern Ontario, Canada (Table 2) shows the degree to which the problem impinges on the human system. According to Wall and Dickinson (1978), total cost approached US$ 95 million in 1976; using the con-sumer price index, this cost is equivalent to about US$ 250 million in 1994 dollars.
eBook - PDFClimate And Society: Climate As Resource, Climate As Risk
Climate as Resource, Climate as Risk
- Nico Stehr, Hans Von Storch(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- World Scientific(Publisher)
Climate as Limiting Condition and Resource The weather — a frequent and natural theme of conversation — influ-ences our everyday life, our behavior, and not least, our well-being. Almost everybody likes to observe and discuss the weather. Perhaps, then, it is not the fever thermometer, but the indoor and outdoor thermometers that are the most common instruments in modern homes. Added to these casual conversations about the weather is a second related theme — climate. People often complain that “the weather” has become worse, by which they mean the statistics related to weather — therefore, the climate. Storms have allegedly become more frequent or stronger, the weather less predictable, and seasonal distinctions have been obliterated. In answer to these complaints, it is often asserted that it is humans who are about to destroy, or at least harm, the climate and thereby their own foundation of life. We will see in Sec. 4.6 that this supposedly new theme is by no means so new. Earlier generations asked themselves to what extent their activities could have negatively affected climate. They also asked how far climatic conditions have an influence on living conditions. In this chapter, we will deal with the static or unchanging climate, which certainly brings extremes from time to time. Catastrophic events such as hurricanes, 4 floods, heat waves, storm surges, and droughts regularly take 11 3 4 Or as they are called in other parts of the world: typhoons, tropical cyclones, etc. place; but in spite of these catastrophes, climate is constant. After these “normal” but rare events, weather conditions return again to the usual condition. A 100-year flood occurs on average once every 100 years; if not, then something is not right with the climate, or with the computation methods for a 100-year flood level. If two 100-year floods occur one right after the other, that is still no reason for alarm.
eBook - PDFHuman Geography
People, Place, and Culture
- Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Murphy(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Natural hazards are created by Earth processes, including movement of lithospheric plates (tectonic change), movement of water (hydrological change), and weather or climate (meteorological or climatological change). 2. Earth’s lithosphere, or upper mantle and crust, is divided into more than 15 plates. Tectonic natural hazards most often happen along boundaries between plates. Plates can diverge (spread apart), con- verge (come together), or transform (slip past each other). When two plates of different densities converge, they form a subduction zone. The oceanic plate is denser and goes under the continental plate at the converging plate boundary. Subduction zones create massive earthquakes under the ocean, which generate destructive seismic sea waves called tsunamis. How much damage a natural disaster like a tsunami causes in terms of human lives and property damage depends on the country and whether it has a tsunami warning system. The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 killed 230,000 people and did more than $10 billion in damage to coasts of Indonesia and Thailand. The 3/11 tsunami in Japan in 2011 killed 15,000 people and did an estimated $235 billion in damages. 3. A flash flood happens when excessive rain or meltwater from snow overflows rivers, fills dry riverbeds, and causes a rapid rise in water levels in a short time. Flash floods are increasingly com- mon because climate change has warmed oceans, which makes evaporation rates higher. Flash floods often happen in cities near infrastructure and buildings because impervious surfaces do not absorb rainwater, creating conditions for flooding if the storm drainage system is not well built or cannot handle the quantity and frequency of rainwater. 4. Monsoons are predictable patterns of winds coming from a cer- tain direction for an extended period. Monsoon rains are welcome because they flood rice fields and regenerate rivers. However, cli- mate change is making monsoon rains less predictable and more extreme.
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
