Natural Disasters By Shannon
Table of Contents
Introduction---page 3
Blizzards and Avalanches---page 7
Tornados---page 4
Glossary---page 8
Hurricane---page 5
Cited Sources---page 9
Flood---page 6
About the Author---10
Introduction Do you know these natural disasters very well: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards and avalanches? if not, read this book and you will learn more about those natural disasters!
Tornado What is a tornado? Tornados are very powerful, though tiny storms with its wind destructive are capable of high buildings and other structures. Tornados are one of the most destructive forces in nature. The largest tornados sometimes destroy a path that its going towards which is about hundred miles long! All the wind in a tornado are from a dark grey column of air and the center of a the tornado spinning, picking up objects from its way its going. Sometimes tornados can last for few minutes or so, but some tornados last for few hours or more.
What causes a tornado? Scientist doesn’t really understand what causes tornados to form. The general theory is that the cloud systems that slowly spin, usually during a supercell storm, but weaker systems can produce them too. The current belief is that a mesocyclone within a storm system is surrounded pronounced variations in the air temperature. Tornados are now known to form in cloud systems where strong wind and variations don’t exist. Once a funnel begins to form, it can gain speed and strength in the same way This is a tornado with a lightning together ice skaters gain rotation speed as they pull their arms to their bodies.
What is a hurricane?
Hurricanes
A hurricane is a tropical storm with the wind goes 74 miles per hour or more that forms in Atlantic Basin. Hurricanes normally occur in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea during the months of July, August, and September, when warm surface temperature is about 80 degrees, providing energy feeding the storm. Seawater evaporates into the air that creates clouds while the Coriolis causes the clouds to rotate. For a hurricane to grow there must not have a lot difference in wind speeds in the higher and lower elevations of the storm. If there is a big difference in these speeds, the resulting wind sheer will cause the hurricane to become unusable, with clouds and wind contrasting each other rather than working together in a huge swirl that increases in speed.
What is an eye of a hurricane? The eye of a hurricane is a region of calm in the middle of the swirling storm. The eye of a hurricane’s size can go from 4 to 40 miles wide. The more intense there is in the hurricane, he smaller the eye is going to be. The eye of a hurricane is surrounded by the “eye wall,” it’s a phrase because it is a circular wall that reaches to 7 miles into the sky. Once it passes the eye wall, the hurricane continues. The wind blows faster than 150 miles per hour or more.
What causes a flood?
Flood
Flooding consequences when more water enters an environment than can be easily absorbed into soil or drained away in rivers and streams. Flooding is usually caused by strong rainfalls that dump many inches of water onto a place over in a short time only, or they can also be caused by ocean waves and storm flows started by hurricanes and tropical storms. Tsunamis also cause flooding. The 2004 tsunamis that occurred in an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean, for example, it killed about 230,000 people in 11 surrounding countries. Most of these people died from the first landfall of the waves and causing floods. In addition, floods can be caused insincerely, such as when a wall or levee breaks.
How much rain does it take to make a flood? The amount varies widely for different places. In most of the U.S western deserts or in large urban places, just a few minutes of strong rain can cause different types of floods, like flash floods, but only in low areas or canyons. In places disposed to greater rainfall amounts, most of the times it takes a little more rain (sometimes a few days or weeks value) to cause rivers to overflow. Raising concerns of people who live downstream. Places with more rainfalls have better natural drainage systems and are usually home to plants that willingly absorb the extra water.
Blizzards and avalanches What is a Bizzard?
According to the U.S National Weather Service, a winter storm is considered a blizzard when the wind speed reaches 35 miles per hour and there is a unfortunate visiblility of less than one quarter mile. Snow does not need to be falling at the time, but blowing and wandering shoud occur with meanings exeeding 10 inches deep. A blizzard is severe snowstorm considered by strong nonstop winds of 56km and lasting for a long period of time, naturally three hours or more. A severe blizzard has winds over 72km, near no visbility, and temperatures of 12 degrees celcius or lower. A ground blizzard is a weather disorder where snow doesn’t fall but loose snow on the ground is raised and blown by strong wind.
What Causes an Avalanch?
Avalanches are most likely to occur on hill with slopes of 30 to 45 degrees. Though wet snow can fall down a hill with a score of as little as 10 degrees, and dry snow frequently causes avalances on hills with about 20 to 22 degree slopes. The most dangerous circumstances for an avalance to occur is when a lot of snow has fallen and/or blowing wind has caused snow to gather within a short period of time. A “dry slab” avalanche is the most dangerous avalanche out of all. This is when a heavy lump of snow that has formed quickly is resting on top of another layer of snow that is weaker but formed over a longer period of time. There are also “wet slab” avalanches, which invloves a layer of damp snow over a harder layer of snow. This is an avalanche
Glossary Mesocyclone---Type of tornado Destructive---Explode or break Damp---Wet Severe---Intense Consequence---Result of an action Insincerely---Not expressive Contrasting---Different from others
Cited Sources Books Information: Hile, Kevin. The Handy Weather Answer Book. 2nd. Singapore: Visible Ink Press, 2009. 1-325. Print.
Web Images: Bryant, Charles. Eye Of Tornado. 2008. Photograph. http:// static.ddmcdn.com/gif/eye-of-tornado-1.jpg America. Web. 6 Jan 2014. Lamb, Robert. Hurricane. N.d. Photograph. http://static.ddmcdn.com/ gif/hurricane-ivan.jpgWeb 10 Jan 2014. Tornado and Lightning . 2013. Photograph. http:// raccoonvalleyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tornado-andlightning1.jpgWeb 10 Jan 2014. The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Flood. 2011. Photograph. http:// Â http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/ Kaldari_Nashville_flood_08.jpg 10 Jan 2014. The Free Media Repository, Wikimedia. Blizzard. 2006. Photograph. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/ Prospect_Heights_Blizzard_NYC_2-12-06_2.jpg New York City. Web. 12 Jan 2014.
The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Avalanche. N.d. Photograph. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/ Avalanche_on_Everest.JPG/300pxAvalanche_on_Everest.JPGWeb. 12 Jan 2014. Blog, Avenger. Avalanche . N.d. Photograph. http:// 3.bp.blogspot.com/-QX46ZbaVPzM/Tn07pr3z7-I/ AAAAAAAAGRQ/0Pkpmfogwfk/s1600/ Natural_Disaster_desktop_wallpapers.jpgWeb. 12 Jan 2014. The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Tornado. 2008. Photograph. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/ Occluded_mesocyclone_tornado5_-_NOAA.jpgWeb. 13 Jan 2014. Bishop, Chris. Avalanche. N.d. Photograph. http://www.spectrumheadquarters.com/challenges_images/spv_avalanche2.jpgWeb. 13 Jan 2014. Immink, Irene. Flood. N.d. Photograph. http://ireneimmink.com/ wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Natural-Disaster.jpgWeb. 13 Jan 2014. The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Hurricane Katrina. N.d. Photograph. http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/d/d6/ Hurricane_Katrina.jpgWeb. 14 Jan 2014.
Information: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Blizzard." Blizzard. N.p.. Web. 9 Jan 2014.
About the Author Shannon, the author of this book, goes to school in SAS in shanghai. Shannon is 10 years old. She is from Malaysia but born in Singapore. She came to shanghai when she was 1 years old has been living there for 9 years.Se likes to paint or draw, her dream is to be a artist or a art teacher. She also plays the violin, she started when she was 9 years old.
Thank you for reading!