Extreme weather

Categories: Weather | Weather hazards

Extreme weather is weather phenomena indicative of an unstable climate; that is, weather that is at the extremes of historical patterns, especially severe or unseasonal weather.

The combination of extreme weather and high population density has led to dramatic weather catastrophes.

Contents 1 2005 2 2004 3 2003 4 2002 5 2001 6 2000 7 1999 8 1998 9 See also 10 External links

2005

• January: Storm winds sweep across northern Europe, leaving at least 13 people dead and millions without electricity. (CNN) (BBC)
• August: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida, then again over New Orleans, LA, flooding over 80 percent of the city and forcing it's mandatory evacuation. The storm has so far been credited with killing over 1,000 people in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama, and causing close to 200 billion U.S. dollars in damages.
• September: Hurricane Rita and Ophelia covers most of what Katrina already got to. However, Rita is category 3 before it can reach the already devastated regions.
• October: Torrential rainfall from Hurricane Stan combines with existing deforestation to trigger mudslides in the highlands of Guatemala killing hundreds of people, primarily in remote Maya villages.

2004

• February: A severe blizzard hits Nova Scotia, leaving at least 9 people dead, with winds of 80 km/h+, leaving the entire province without power for 16 hours est.
• August: Hurricane Charley makes landfall in Sw Florida, killing 13.
• September:Hurricane Frances makes landfall in Florida. Hurricane Ivan landed near Gulf Shores, Alabama, near the Florida Panhandle. Hurricane Jeanne makes landfall in central Florida and kills 3,000 in Haiti
• December: Another major Blizzard hits Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Southern New Brunswick, leaving over 1.5 million people without electricity(for estimatedly 19 hours), and over 100 dead people.

2003

• August: A heat wave involving temperatures as high as 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) struck Europe. Because summer temperatures, in much of northern Europe, rarely exceed 30 °C (86 °F), the area was unprepared for the disaster. The death toll of the heat wave has been estimated to exceed 10,000. See: European Heat Wave of 2003
• September: Hurricane Isabel makes landfall on the United States, killing at least 40 people in the hizz

2002

• September: On September 19, about one-third of the Maili glacier broke off from the Caucasus Mountains and buried Karmadon, Russia under up to 500 feet (150 m) of ice and debris, killing 125, including the young Russian movie star Sergei Bodrov Jr.
  • On the night of September 8 a flash flood struck the Scottish city of Inverness, flooding parts of the city to a depth of 2 metres.
• August: At least 109 are killed by floods caused by torrential rains in Europe, including the Malse, Blanice, and Vltava rivers of the Czech Republic, the Black Sea resort village of Shirokaya Balka near Novorossiisk in Russia (58 deaths), Germany (the Elbe and Pleisse), and Romania. The downpours have also caused extensive damage in Austria (the Rodl and Danube), Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, and Spain. Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla declared a state of emergency in Prague, Bohemia, Plzen and Karlovy Vary. The Elbe reached record heights in Dresden, flooding much of the city. All shipping on the Danube had to be halted. Premier Silvio Berlusconi approved $50 million in emergency aid in response to the $300 million in damage of northern Italy's crops.
  • About 2000 people are killed by floods and landslides in Asia during its monsoon season.

2001

2000

• January: floods killed 12 and left thousands homeless in Brazil
  • 15 inches (380 mm) of snow fell in Israel, the most in 50 years
• February: the worst avalanches in decades prompted the governor of Alaska to declare a state of emergency
  • floods killed 11 and left 20,000 homeless in the Philippines
  • a month of floods in Southern Africa, particularly Mozambique, kill 400 and displace 250,000
• October/November: England experiences the country's worst flooding decades after a prolonged period of heavy rain. The historic city of York and the towns of Shrewsbury, Lewes and Uckfield are among the worst hit areas. Up to 10,000 homes and businesses are affected.

1999

• Record drought in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states led to declarations of emergency in six states.
• Summer: a prolonged heat wave killed 271 people in the Midwest and Northeast.
• Fall: Hurricane Floyd caused billions of dollars of damages in North Carolina
• November: a super-cyclone in Orissa, India, killed 10,000 people
• December: torrential rains and mudslides in Venezuela killed 15,000 people
  • hurricane-force windstorms in Northern Europe caused over $10 billion in damages and killed 91 people in France alone

1998

• January: an ice storm in northern New England and Quebec left 4 million people without power, some for up to a month
• Spring: fires in Brazil, Mexico rainforests, and Florida
• Summer: extreme heat waves in Texas, Florida, the Middle East, and India killed more than 4,000 people
  • The worst drought in 70 years was followed by extreme floods in September in Mexico
• September: floods left 14 million people homeless in China
• October: floods left 30 million people homeless in Bangladesh
• October-November: Hurricane Mitch killed more than 18,000 people in Central America

See also

• List of disasters
• List of wars and disasters by death toll
• global climate change
• global warming
• weather related fatalities
• U.S. state temperature extremes
• List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks

External links

• The Heat is Online: Extreme Weather Events
• Weather