Week 2: L7

Question 1

What are extreme weather events?

Answer 1

• Those that deviate significanly from the average conditions for a particular region and time of year
• significant impacts human populations, ecosystems and infrastructure
• can escalate to natural disasters

Question 2

What are temperature extremes?

Answer 2

• high or low temperatures that have significant impacts on human health, ecosystems and infrastructure
• deviation from typical temperatures for specific region and time of year- severity measured in terms of duration, intensity and frequency
• Heat waves- prolonged periods of unusually high temps, exceeding 35 degrees celcius. Exacerbated by high humidity
• Cold waves/ spells- periods unusually low temp, persist for 2 days
• marine heat waves: extreme heat in ocean, impacts marine life

Question 3

Droughts

Answer 3

• prolonged period of unsually dry weather, leads to water scarcity and enviornmental stress

Question 4

Flooding

Answer 4

• overflowing of water onto normally dry land
• caused by heavy rainfall and rising sea levels
• tropical regions- warmer, evaporation into air, warm air and condensation happens and precipitation occurs

Question 5

Storms

Answer 5

• climate chnage intensify
• storms: disturbed atmospheric systems with strong winds, heavy rain, thunder, lightning or snow
• warmer oceans- more energy for tropical storms
• more moisture in the air- heavier rainfall during storms
• rising sea level- bigger storm surges and coastal flooding
• slower jet streams- slower moving storms- prolonged impacts
• types??
• the most intense tropical cyclones and peak wind speeds projected to increase with increasing global warming
• ## The average and max rainfall with tropical cyclones increase with warm world

Question 6

Where most extreme events are in South Africa?

Answer 6

• Western Cape
• KZN
• Gauteng