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Climatic Hazards > Air Masses, Fronts And Depressions > Flashcards

Air Masses, Fronts And Depressions Flashcards

0
Q

What are the 5 air masses in the UK?

A 
Tropical continental 
Tropical maritime 
Polar continental
Polar maritime 
Arctic maritime
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1
Q

What are air masses?

A

Large bodies of air that adopt the characteristics of the area of origin, bringing weather with them but also can create weather

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2
Q

What kind of weather do the tropical air masses bring?

A

Warm/very hot

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3
Q

What kind of weather do maritime air masses bring?

A

Wet weather

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4
Q

What kind of weather do continental air masses bring?

A

Dry weather

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5
Q

What kind of weather do polar and arctic air masses bring?

A

Cold/very cold

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6
Q

What are fronts?

A

Where air masses meet each other, they interact and react to each other and create weather

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7
Q

What are the 2 types of fronts?

A

Warm front

Cold front

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8
Q

What is an anticyclone?

A

A large mass of subsidising air which produces high pressure at the earth’s surface

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9
Q

What are the two types of anticyclones?

A

Cold and warm

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10
Q

What descending air mass does a cold anticyclone form from?

A

Either polar continental or arctic maritime

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11
Q

What are blocking anticyclones?

A

A large mass of air of high pressure that becomes stationary leading to periods of either intense cold (winter) or heat waves (summer)

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12
Q

What weather conditions does a cold anticyclone bring?

A

Extremely cold conditions
Days of continuous frost and freezing temps
Ice
Winter fog

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13
Q

What weather conditions can a summer warm cyclone bring?

A

Drought
Low level ozone
Thunderstorms

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14
Q

What is absolute drought?

A

Period of 15 consecutive days with less than 0.2mm rainfall

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15
Q

What is partial drought?

A

29 days with average daily rainfall not exceeding 0.2mm

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16
Q

What year was the European heat wave and was it a result of an anticyclone or a depression?

A

Early July - late sept 2003

Anticyclone

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17
Q

What were some short term responses to the European heat wave?

A

Hosepipe ban
Stay indoors
Emergency food supplies

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18
Q

What was a key long term response to the European heat wave?

A

Increasing water and electricity supply to meet the demand

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19
Q

What were some positive economic impacts of the European heat wave?

A

Rise in tourism

Benefitted retail

20
Q

What were some negative socio-economic impacts of the European heat wave?

A

Cost of people taking days off - £7.5-10 million a day
Transport disruption - roads melted, London Underground reached 37 degrees
August death rate 15,000 more than expected

21
Q

What was a negative environmental impact of the European heat wave ?

A

Increase in low level ozone

22
Q

When was the UK Great Storm?

A

15th-16th October 1987

23
Q

The Great Storm: what were reasons for vulnerability?

A
  • the met office failed to predict the weather front = public weren’t aware of hazards
24
Q

The Great Storm: what were some socio-economic impacts?

A

Cost: $1.4 billion
18 deaths
thousands of homes without power, not fully restored for two weeks
£860 million insurance claims

25
Q

The Great Storm: what were some environmental impacts?

A

15 million trees lost

wild boar escaped from enclosures and have established populations

26
Q

The Great Storm: what were some responses?

A
  • greater observational coverage of the atmosphere by increasing quantity of satellites, aircraft and ship observation
  • reform of the weather warning process
27
Q

When and where was the big freeze?

A

UK and Ireland

December 2009 - Feb 2010

28
Q

What were some physical causes of the big freeze?

A

Polar continental air mass brought high pressure and very low temps
air mass came over scandinavia
high pressure brought clouds = precipitation as snow

29
Q

The Big Freeze: What were some reasons for vulnerability?

A
  • unprepared with emergency services slow to respond
  • little could be done to prevent
  • electricity and heating prices very high = vulnerable
  • heavy reliance on transport infrastructure
30
Q

The Big Freeze: what were some socio-economic impacts?

A

school closure
death and injury - road accidents
£1.2 billion a day lost from infrastructural disfunction

31
Q

The Big Freeze: what were some environmental impacts?

A

food for animals and wildlife short

32
Q

The Big Freeze: what were some short term responses?

A

gritting and emergency services response improvements

33
Q

The Big Freeze: what are some long term impacts?

A

improve supply of salt

34
Q

When was the Mali drought?

A

February - August 2010

35
Q

Mali Drought: what were some socio-economic impacts?

A
  • inadequate water supplies

- farmers unable to grow crops = residents reliant on expensive food imports - can’t afford

36
Q

Mali Drought: what are some environmental impacts

A
  • desertification
  • wildlife struggling
  • soils too dry to grow certain crops
37
Q

When was hurricane Katrina?

A

August 2005

38
Q

Hurricane Katrina: where did it hit?

A

New Orleans

39
Q

Katrina: what windspeeds and category hurricane was it?

A

Cat 4

windspeeds reaching 127mph

40
Q

Katrina: what were some physical factors influencing vulnerability?

A
  • large amounts of NO was beneath sea level
  • surrounded by water, mouth of mississippi -low-lying delta region
  • limited natural protection
41
Q

Katrina: what were some human factors influencing the vulnerability?

A
  • rely on levees to protect city - only able to withstand cat 3
    - poorly maintained
  • high population density
  • 11-12 million live in coastal areas
42
Q

Katrina: what were some socio-economic issues?

A
  • 1,500 deaths
  • $300 billion damage
  • 80% under 6m of water
  • over a million evacuated
  • trade badly effected & unemployment
43
Q

Katrina: what were some environmental impacts?

A
  • 20% of wetland lost = breeding affected
  • 24.6 million litres of oil pumped into lake
  • 5,300km2 of woodland and forest destroyed
44
Q

When and where was Cyclone Nargis?

A

May 2008, Burma

45
Q

Cyclone Nargis: what were some physical factors influencing the severity?

A
  • low-lying delta region with a large coastline
  • lack of vegetation/defences
  • weak cat.4
  • lack of accessibility due to location of airport
46
Q

Cyclone Nargis: what are some human factors influencing the severity of the cyclone?

A
  • poor governance - military takeover since 1962 = prevented help from international aid organisation for weeks, expected people to recover alone
  • concentrated population in rural areas with high reliance on agriculture - 68% rural; 32% urban
  • poor, with low standard of living: phone lines/100 people = 0.9; internet users/100 people = 0.1
47
Q

Cyclone Nargis: What were some short term impacts?

A

winds reached 165mph - collapsed buildings = death and injury
600-700mm rainfall = flooding; disease; water pollution; crops submerged
storm surge = 3.5m
140,000 deaths

48
Q

Cyclone Nargis: what were some long term impacts?

A
  • $10 billion damage
  • 2 million homeless
  • 200,000 people without water, a year later
  • paddy fields and aquifers still contaminated with salt water
    - no way of making a living; food prices inflated

Climatic Hazards (2 decks)

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