Essay On Extreme Weather

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), extreme weather is defined as any weather phenomenon that has the possibility of causing disturbance, destruction or damage to both the environment and mankind. There are different types of extreme weather event, these are, rainstorm, wildfire, hail, thunderstorm, downbursts, lightning, tornadoes, waterspouts, tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones, and flood. Among all these events, tornadoes, flood, hurricanes, and thunderstorm are the most dangerous and destructive which can claim a lot of human lives and even cause loss of property. These weather phenomena are associated with cumulonimbus clouds, their formation and development varies under different condition and geographic locations. The study of the formation and development of these weather-related phenomena are very useful for predicting the occurrence of such events and this information will be of help in saving lives of people in the prone areas.

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For instance, the summer of 2002 in Europe brought widespread floods, but was followed a year later in 2003 by record-breaking heat waves and drought. In the summer of 2007, widespread flooding in central England (the wettest since records began in 1766) was accompanied by drought and record-breaking heat waves in southeast Europe (Trenberth 2011). Flooding in large river basins, such as the Mississippi, is not driven by brief, extreme precipitation episodes alone. Rather, extreme precipitation must be sustained for weeks to months to flood the Mississippi. In spring, heavy rains on top of snow can contribute to flooding in northern regions. Such long-term, heavy precipitation episodes are becoming more common in some areas. In the U.S., 90-day periods of heavy rainfall were 20% more common from 1981 to 2006 than in any earlier 25-year period on record (Kunkel et al.