"Storm damage" redirects here. For the British television
film, see Storm Damage. See also: Acid rain, Effects of tropical cyclones, Hail, Lightning, Snow, Wildfire, Wind, and Wind shear
A snow blockade in southernMinnesota, US in 1881
A return stroke, cloud-to-groundlightning strike during a thunderstorm. Shipwrecks are common with the passage of strong tropical cyclones. Such shipwrecks can change the course of history, [12] as well as influence art and literature. A hurricane led to a victory of the Spanish over the French for control of Fort Caroline, and ultimately the Atlantic coast of North America, in 1565. [13]
Strong winds from any storm type can damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles. In the United States, major hurricanes comprise just 21% of all landfalling tropical cyclones, but account for 83% of all damage. [14] Tropical cyclones often knock out power to tens or hundreds of thousands of people, preventing vital communication and hampering rescue efforts. [15] Tropical cyclones often destroy key bridges, overpasses, and roads, complicating efforts to transport food, clean water, and medicine to the areas that need it. Furthermore, the damage caused by tropical cyclones to buildings and dwellings can result in economic damage to a region, and to a diaspora of the population of the region. [16]
The storm surge, or the increase in sea level due to the cyclone, is typically the worst effect from landfalling tropical cyclones, historically resulting in 90% of tropical cyclone deaths. [16] The relatively quick surge in sea level can move miles/kilometers inland, flooding homes and cutting off escape routes. The storm surges and winds of hurricanes may be destructive to human-made structures, but they also stir up the waters of coastal estuaries, which are typically important fish breeding locales. Cloud-to-ground lightning frequently occur within the phenomena of thunderstorms and have numerous hazards towards landscapes and populations. One of the more significant hazards lightning can pose is the wildfires they are capable of igniting. [17] Under a regime of low precipitation (LP) thunderstorms, where little precipitation is present, rainfall cannot prevent fires from starting when vegetation is dry as lightning produces a concentrated amount of extreme heat. [18] Wildfires can devastate vegetation and the biodiversity of an ecosystem. Wildfires that occur close to urban environments can inflict damages upon infrastructures, buildings, crops, and provide risks to explosions, should the flames be exposed to gas pipes. Direct damage caused by lightning strikes occurs on occasion. [19] In areas with a high frequency for cloud-to- ground lightning, like Florida, lightning causes several fatalities per year, most commonly to people working outside. [20]
Precipitation with low potential of hydrogen levels (pH), otherwise known as acid rain, is also a frequent risk produced by lightning. Distilled water, which contains no carbon dioxide, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7 are bases. Clean or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of about 5.2, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid (pH 5.6 in distilled water), but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals. [21] Nitric oxide present during thunderstorm phenomena, [22] caused by the splitting of nitrogen molecules, can result in the production of acid rain, if nitric oxide forms compounds with the water molecules in precipitation, thus creating acid rain. Acid rain can damage infrastructures containing calcite or other solid chemical compounds containing carbon. In ecosystems, acid rain can dissolve plant tissues of vegetations and increase acidification process in bodies of water and in soil, resulting in deaths of marine and terrestrial organisms. [23]
Hail damage to roofs often goes unnoticed until further structural damage is seen, such as leaks or cracks. It is hardest to recognize hail damage on shingled roofs and flat roofs, but all roofs have their own hail damage detection problems. [6] Metal roofs are fairly resistant to hail damage, but may accumulate cosmetic damage in the form of dents and damaged coatings. [24] Hail is also a common nuisance to drivers of automobiles, severely denting the vehicle and cracking or even shattering windshields and windows. Rarely, massive hailstones have been known to cause concussions or fatal head trauma. Hailstorms have been the cause of costly and deadly events throughout history. One of the earliest recorded incidents occurred around the 9th century in Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India. [25] The largest hailstone in terms of diameter and weight ever recorded in the United States fell on July 23, 2010 in Vivian, South Dakota in the United States; it measured 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter and 18.62 inches (47.3 cm) in circumference, weighing in at 1.93 pounds (0.88 kg). [26] This broke the previous record for diameter set by a hailstone 7 inches diameter and 18.75 inches circumference which fell in Aurora, Nebraska in the United States on June 22, 2003, as well as the record for weight, set by a hailstone of 1.67 pounds (0.76 kg) that fell in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1970. [26]
Various hazards, ranging from hail to lightning can have an impact on outside technology facilities, such as antennas, satellite dishes, and towers. As a result, companies with outside facilities have begun installing such facilities underground, in order to reduce the risk of damage from storms. [27]
Substantial snowfall can disrupt public infrastructure and services, slowing human activity even in regions that are accustomed to such weather. Air and ground transport may be greatly inhibited or shut down entirely. Populations living in snow-prone areas have developed various ways to travel across the snow, such as skis, snowshoes, and sleds pulled by horses, dogs, or other animals and later, snowmobiles. Basic utilities such as electricity, telephone lines, and gas supply can also fail. In addition, snow can make roads much harder to travel and vehicles attempting to use them can easily become stuck. [28]
The combined effects can lead to a "snow day" on which gatherings such as school, work, or church are officially canceled. In areas that normally have very little or no snow, a snow day may occur when there is only light accumulation or even the threat of snowfall, since those areas are unprepared to handle any amount of snow. In some areas, such as some states in the United States, schools are given a yearly quota of snow days (or "calamity days"). Once the quota is exceeded, the snow days must be made up. [29][30][31] In other states, all snow days must be made up. [32] For example, schools may extend the remaining school days later into the afternoon, shorten spring break, or delay the start ofsummer vacation. Accumulated snow is removed to make travel easier and safer, and to decrease the long-term impact of a heavy snowfall. This process utilizes shovels and snowplows, and is often assisted by sprinkling salt or other chloride-based chemicals, which reduce the melting temperature of snow. [33] In some areas with abundant snowfall, such as Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, people harvest snow and store it surrounded by insulation in ice houses. This allows the snow to be used through the summer for refrigeration and air conditioning, which requires far less electricity than traditional cooling methods. [34]
Agriculture[edit] Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock, and most commonly, farmers' crops. [35] Wheat, corn, soybeans, and tobacco are the most sensitive crops to hail damage. [36] Hail is one of Canada's most expensive hazards. [37] Snowfall can be beneficial to agriculture by serving as a thermal insulator, conserving the heat of the Earth and protecting crops from subfreezing weather. Some agricultural areas depend on an accumulation of snow during winter that will melt gradually in spring, providing water for crop growth. If it melts into water and refreezes upon sensitive crops, such as oranges, the resulting ice will protect the fruit from exposure to lower temperatures. [38] Although tropical cyclones take an enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be important factors in the precipitation regimes of places they affect and bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry regions. Hurricanes in the eastern north Pacific often supply moisture to the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. [39] Japan receives over half of its rainfall from typhoons. [40] Hurricane Camille averted drought conditions and ended water deficits along much of its path, [41] though it also killed 259 people and caused $9.14 billion (2005 USD) in damage. Aviation[edit]
Effect of wind shear on aircraft trajectory. Merely correcting for the initial gust front can have dire consequences. Hail is one of the most significant thunderstorm hazards to aircraft. [42] When hail stones exceed 0.5 inches (13 mm) in diameter, planes can be seriously damaged within seconds. [43] The hailstones accumulating on the ground can also be hazardous to landing aircraft. Strong wind outflow from thunderstorms causes rapid changes in the three- dimensional wind velocity just above ground level. Initially, this outflow causes a headwind that increases airspeed, which normally causes a pilot to reduce engine power if they are unaware of the wind shear. As the aircraft passes into the region of the downdraft, the localized headwind diminishes, reducing the aircraft's airspeed and increasing its sink rate. Then, when the aircraft passes through the other side of the downdraft, the headwind becomes a tailwind, reducing lift generated by the wings, and leaving the aircraft in a low-power, low-speed descent. This can lead to an accident if the aircraft is too low to effect a recovery before ground contact. As the result of the accidents in the 1970s and 1980s, in 1988 the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration mandated that all commercial aircraft have on-board wind shear detection systems by 1993. Between 1964 and 1985, wind shear directly caused or contributed to 26 major civil transport aircraft accidents in the U.S. that led to 620 deaths and 200 injuries. Since 1995, the number of major civil aircraft accidents caused by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years, due to the mandated on-board detection as well as the addition of Doppler weather radar units on the ground. (NEXRAD) [44]
Recreation[edit] Many winter sports, such as skiing, [45] snowboarding, [46] snowmobiling, [47] and snowsh oeing depend upon snow. Where snow is scarce but the temperature is low enough, snow cannons may be used to produce an adequate amount for such sports. [48] Children and adults can play on a sled or ride in a sleigh. Although a person's footsteps remain a visible lifeline within a snow- covered landscape, snow cover is considered a general danger to hiking since the snow obscures landmarks and makes the landscape itself appear uniform. [49]
EFFECTS OF TROPICAL CYCLONES Tropical cyclone constitutes one of the most destructive natural disasters that affects many countries around the globe and exacts tremendous annual losses in lives and property. Its impact is greatest over the coastal areas, which bear the brunt of the strong surface winds, squalls, induced tornadoes, and flooding from heavy rains, rather than strong winds, that cause the greatest loss in lives and destruction to property in coastal areas.
STRONG WINDS A squall is defined as an event in which the surface wind increases in magnitude above the mean by factors of 1.2 to 1.6 or higher and is maintained over a time interval of several minutes to one half hour. The spatial scales would be roughly 2 to 10 km. The increase in wind may occur suddenly or gradually. These development near landfall lead to unexpectedly large damage.
TORNADOES Tornadoes are tropical cyclone spawned which are to expected for about half of the storms of tropical storm intensity. These are heavily concentrated in the right front quadrant of the storm (relative to the track) in regions where the air has had a relatively short trajectory over land. These form in conjunction with strong convection.
RAINFALL AND FLOODING Rainfall associated with tropical cyclones is both beneficial and harmful. Although the rains contribute to the water needs of the areas traversed by the cyclones, the rains are harmful when the amount is so large as to cause flooding.
STORM SURGE The storm surge is an abnormal rise of water due to a tropical cyclone and it is an oceanic event responding to meteorological driving forces. Potentially disastrous surges occur along coasts with low-lying terrain that allows inland inundation, or across inland water bodies such as bays, estuaries, lakes and rivers. For riverine situations, the surge is sea water moving up the river. A fresh water flooding moving down a river due to rain generally occurs days after a storm event and is not considered a storm surge. For a typical storm, the surge affects about 160 km of coastline for a period of several hours. Larger storms that are moving slowly may impact considerably longer stretches of coastline.
The term "typhoon" refers to a tropical, cyclonic storm that originates in the western Pacific Ocean (in the Atlantic, this type of storm is referred to as a hurricane). Typhoons are characterized by large masses of clouds, which spiral around a central point, or eye. Infamous for their destructive powers, typhoons can generate winds of more than 75 miles/hour and have been known to cause flash floods with their intensive rainfall. Buildings and infrastructure, trees and other vegetation, watercraft and water operations, and human and animal life can all be affected.
Buildings and Infrastructure The two most destructive forces associated with typhoons are wind and rain. According to the Green Fun website, typhoon winds can affect buildings and other structures in two ways: through direct force and through projectiles. Direct force is when a wind gust slams directly into a building or structure and causes physical damage, such as when wind blows the roof off a home. Wind can also inflict damage by picking up and launching debris and other items, such as tree branches and building materials, into buildings and other structures. The heavy and persistent rainfall that typhoons bring can also have devastating effects. In addition to making homes uninhabitable, the flooding associated with typhoons can make roads impassable, which can cripple rescue and aid efforts.
Trees and Other Vegetation Typhoons can also affect the natural environment, and cause harm to trees and other vegetation, including crops that communities may rely on for sustenance or trade, or both. Strong winds can snap branches; detach and injure leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds; and uproot trees and plants. Flooding can produce over-saturation and drown out vegetation. Typhoons also deposit large quantities of salt onto plant life, which can have adverse effects. According to the Green Fun website, trees and vegetation in urban areas are more susceptible to typhoon damage, as they tend to grow in poor, restricted soil conditions.
Watercraft and Water Operations
In addition to causing mayhem on land, typhoons are also well- known for stirring up the seas. Individuals on watercraft or those performing water operations (such as on oil rigs) not only have to contend with heavy winds and rain, but they have to deal with massive waves and, in general, turbulent water conditions. According to the Naval Historical Center website, typhoons have a history of causing harm out at sea, and this was especially true during World War II, when Pacific naval fleets were regularly battered by the storms. Today, fishing boats, cruise ships and other vessels rely on sophisticated technology to help them predict and avoid the devastating effects of typhoons.
Life Both human and animal life can be impacted, and ultimately taken, by the destructive forces of typhoons. While this can occur directly, such as if an individual is struck by debris or is caught in a building collapse, perhaps the more silent killer is the lack of available resources and infrastructure that results. According to the Facts and Details website, flooding from typhoons can destroy food stocks and supplies, and spread disease. When communities are cut off by typhoons, individuals may not be able to get the medical attention they so desperately need, and starvation becomes a big risk as well.