Severe Weather Hazards: 75% of damages and deaths come from this What drives weather on Earth?

o Heat or Temperature o Humidity o Water Top 10 Reasons Water is cool: o Bipolar: Has a slight positive charge on one side and slightly negative charge on the other side Powerful weather-er of rocks; Pulls everything apart o Universal Solvent (highest of all substance known to humans) Keeps things in solution Highest dielectric constant o Highest latent heat of vaporization (latent=hidden) 600 calories of energy to make water evaporate Of all liquids highest heat needed to vaporize it o Highest latent heat of fusion (fusion=join together) Highest amount of all substances must be removed from water to take it from liquid to a solid 80 calories per gram Ice to liquid or liquid to ice o Exists in three phases on earth Solid, liquid, gas o Solid less dense than liquid o Highest heat capacity (of all liquids except ammonia) Ability to store energy o Highest surface tension Ability for animals to walk on water o Higher heat conduction Water conducts heat better than air does Water will equalize out with the other water Water pulls the heat away from the human body o The reasons life is possible The sun o A lot of energy to get the water cycle to run Why is it cold at the poles and hot at the equator? o Sun shines directly as large circle on equator o As it moves to the poles it simply rises and the circle flattens and spreads out; not as concentrated on the poles

o 40 degrees north to 40 degrees south, more heat is coming than is leaving o Earth is spinning 1,037 mph at the equator; as you go up more it spins at a lesser rate o Spinning out from under the convection cells Coriolis Effect: the earth is spinning o Spinning out from under this airborne objects, spins clockwise in the atmosphere and forces objects flying to move up and to the right o 6 Cells: 3 in the northern atmosphere; 3 in southern atmosphere 0-30, 30-60, 60-90 0-30: Harley Cell 30-60: Ferrell Cell 60-90: Polar Cell o Middle cell inside out cell Ferrell Cell Adiabatic Process: temperature change w/o heat change o Warm air rises -> Cold air loses temperature without losing heat -> Contracts, warms -> process repeats Jet Stream: o Pressure gradient over polar from very steep o This is where most severe weather happens o Reason interesting weather occurs o Different amounts of humidity and temperature o Air rushes extremely fast from top of atmosphere to the bottom Due to temperature differences o Tropical atmosphere absorbs heat, air expands becomes less dense, rises, forms thick mass o Polar air cold, lies near surface o Interaction makes jet stream o Belt of winds 1000 km wide flows 120-300 mph o Changes seasonally (over Canada in summer and US in winter) o Anything above jet stream is cold, anything below is warm o If air comes ocean its wet, if not its dry o If air comes from north its cold, from the south its warm o More thunderstorms in Florida; specifically Tampa than anywhere else When air masses meet: o These are fronts o Cold front: Cold air under warm air = Thunderstorms o Warm front: Warm air under cold air = Clouds and rain (more gentle system) o Occluded Front: Fast moving cold overtakes a warm front and lifts the base of the warm front = Widespread rain

Thunderstorms: What happens before: - Warm, moist air absorbs enough heat to be much less dense than surrounding air - Warm air rises HIGH, condenses into towering clouds, relases heat, rises higher - Ice crystals form, become too heavy, precipitation (ppt) begins - Updrafts and downdrafts form Water going from vapor to liquid releases heat; causes clouds to rise; liquid to solid will release more heat Stages: - Cumulus Stage: - Mature Stage: - Dissipating Stage: Heat is released and further released by lighting is gone; icy cap on top of cloud, downdrafts is only thing going on, no more heat left in the cloud (which means no more thunder or lightning) Lightning: - Charge difference build in clouds - Due to super-cooled droplets of water shattering and charges separating o Positively and negatively charge particles o Migrate to different parts of the cloud; Positive particles move to top of cloud and negative move to bottom o Air is insulator so particles build up until pockets cannot stay and equalize out which causes lightning o Induced positive and negative particles will grow beneath the cloud on the ground equalize out from the ground up - Latent heat released, atmosphere explosively warmed, THUNDER o Lightning and Thunder are the same thing, light though travels much faster than sound Hail: Ice is kept up so long it gets bigger and bigger -

- Thunderstorms happen in the summer do not happen all year long - Smallest number happen in the pacific-northwest; the most happen in Florida Tornado: - Its a normal thunderstorm, but air is moving in one direction at the bottom of the atmosphere and a different direction at the top of the atmosphere - It becomes a tornado only at the point when it touches down - A cold-front (Super-cell: giant cold front as big as 7 or 8 miles high) interacts with the jet stream, which sets the thunderstorm spinning - Most violent storms (per unit area: small and concentrated)

Winds up to 310 mph, move at 62 mph Funnel clouds form from the atmosphere, many never touch ground Core of whirling vortex less than 1km wide, HUGE suction Form from normal thunderstorms 70% of tornados happen in great plains region Who lives in tornados: Babies Who dies the most: People who live in mobile homes; old people Texas has most deaths; Mississippi most deaths per person (per capita) Tornados classified on the Fujita Scale o 0-5 o Wind speed and path length; how long the tornado was on the ground

Tropical Hurricane: - Massive thunderstorm that starts spinning - Coriolous effect: the earth is spinning - Start over tropical oceans; water must be 85 degrees or above - Evaporations of massive amounts of water - Creates very low pressure on the surface of the ocean - In tornado things are being sucked up; in the eye of the hurricane air sinks down in the eye wall. The eye is very calm part of the storm; the eye wall has the most energy in the storm - Warm water in ocean > 80 degrees F - Warm moist air rapidly rises, circular winds form ocean (Coriolis) rush in and rise - Air expands, cools, precipitaiton forms, releases heat, rises even more (thunderstorm) - Rising air causes chimney, causes winds to descend in high pressure region - As soon as it hits land it loses its energy source, but it takes awhile for it to lose its energy - Classified by Saffir-Simpson Scale (1-5) o Speed and storm surge height o Tropical Depression: low pressure zone where winds converge that have a sustained speed of less than 39 mph Air is rising like crazy above the water Winds converge; have sustained speed of 39 mph o Tropical Storm: low pressure zone where winds converge that have a sustained speed of between 40 74 mph o Tropical Cyclone: low pressure zone where winds converge that have a sustained speed of >74 mph (Catagories 1-5) 5 is above 155 mph wind speed What causes damage: - Wind: destroys buildings, create high waves, people killed by flying debris. Tornados - Waves: destroy beaches and property - Storm Surge: massive flooding inland

Flooding: High precipitation Landslides: Water saturated slopes may fail

Rivers & Flooding: It is a continuation of the Hydrologic Cycle o Looking at what happens on the surface as water runs back into the ocean o 97.2% Oceans o 2.15% Glaciers o 0.62% Groundwater o 0.009% Freshwater Lakes o 0.008% Saline lakes o 0.005% Soil moisture o 0.001% Atmosphere o 0.001% Stream channels Its moving water (if not moving its not a river), flows downhill, its made up of sediment and water Body of water in motion with clearly defined passageway, which transports water, particles, and dissolved substances Basin: one that is drained by a stream system (high point above river Divide: topographic high that divides two basins River Types: o Straight: Uncommon o Braided: tons of sediment, no vegetation, common on earth before plants evolved (plants anchor sediment hold it together) o Meandering: common; we focus on these Winds back and forth Fastest on outside curve; cut bank (getting pulled away) Slowest on inside curve; point bars Oxbows occur when there are cut banks in the river; the amount of time it takes depends on soil and velocity Hydrologists: scientists investigating how width, depth, velocity and discharge are related o The deeper, faster, and wider the more water the river can carry o The higher the velocity the higher the particle size that can be cornered Sediment Transport: o Saltaton o Holstrom Diagram: How sediment is moved in a river

Particle size Higher the velocity the small the particle sizes Deposition occurs when velocity is low Transport more when the velocity increases Erosion occurs with partially high velocity

Water transport: o Streamflow equation: Q = A x V o Q = Discharge = volume of water a river can carry per unit time (ft^3/sec) o V = Velocity = the speed at which the river is flowing (ft/sec) o A = cross-sectional river area (ft^2) o A river is 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep; It is flowing at 3 ft per second; what is the discharge in the river: Q=? V=3ft/sec A=3ftx2ft=6ft^2 So: Q= (3ft/sec)x(3ftx2ft) => 3ft/sec x 6ft^2 => 18ft^3/sec What is a flood? o A flood is when the river stage reaches the floodplain o Water spread out laterally along the landscape o Flood or river flow is shown by Hydrograph (discharge vs. time) Hydrographs change with degree of infiltration Infiltration: water traveling into the round and becoming part of groundwater (good for purpose of avoiding floods Infiltration controlled by: Degree of urbanization Antecedent soil moisture Temperature (hotter the more evaporation; colder the more ice or mineral inability for water to be absorbed) Type of soil Slope greater the slope the less the infiltration Problems associated with flooding: o Fatigue o Depression o Injury o Disease (bacteria, tetanus) o Pests (mosquitoes) o Pollution (chemical releases) o Death Why do people settle on rivers o Fertile soil => to grow food or fish o Aesthetic they look nice o Transportation

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Water to drink (Quaban Resvoir) Waste Flushing Energy Recreation River valleys flat and easy to build on

We should live by rivers but in order to we need to research and understand them Recurrence Interval (T, or R) statistical probability that a flood of given magnitude occurs: probability of a 100 year flood o T = Recurrence interval o N = number of years o M = rank o T = (n + 1)/m