Week 2: L7 Flashcards

(6 cards)

1
Q

What are extreme weather events?

A
  • 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
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2
Q

What are temperature extremes?

A
  • 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
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3
Q

Droughts

A
  • prolonged period of unsually dry weather, leads to water scarcity and enviornmental stress
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4
Q

Flooding

A
  • 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
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5
Q

Storms

A
  • 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
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6
Q

Where most extreme events are in South Africa?

A
  • Western Cape
  • KZN
  • Gauteng
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