• Catastrophic weather events include hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and droughts, among others. As these massively destructive and costly events become more frequent, scientific evidence points to climate change as a leading cause. While they can often be predicted, the loss of life and property take an emotional and economic toll on the community impacted.
  • Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances in warm ocean waters with surface temperatures of at least 26.5 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit). Those low-pressure systems are fed by energy from warm seas.
  • A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.
  • Lightning – Lightning is an electric charge or current. It can come from the clouds to the ground, from cloud to cloud, or from the ground to a cloud.
  • A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling but loose snow on the ground is lifted and blown by strong winds. Blizzards can have an immense size and usually stretch to hundreds or thousands of kilometers.
  • Tsunamis – In Japanese, tsunami means “harbour wave.” Tsunamis are ocean waves triggered by an earthquake, volcano, or other movement of the ocean floor. Potentially imperceptible in deep water, a tsunami increases in height as it encounters the shallow waters of shore, often leading to extensive wreckage and loss.
  • The Coriolis Effect: Earth’s Rotation and Its Effect on Weather.
  • Flood – A flood happens when water overflows or soaks land that is normally dry. There are a few places on earth where people don’t need to be concerned about flooding.
  • A monsoon is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing, or strongest, winds of a region. Monsoons cause wet and dry seasons throughout much of the tropics.
  • Rogue Waves – Rogue waves develop from swells interacting with currents and eddies—and can devastate ships at sea.
  • Drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather when there is not enough rain.
  • Front – A front is a weather system that is the boundary separating two different types of air. One type of air is usually denser than the other, with different temperatures and different levels of humidity.

(Images/video taken from google/IE)