Uk Weather Hazards And Climate - Physical Flashcards
What is weather?
A description of the day to day conditions of the atmosphere
What is climate?
The average weather over a long period of time
What is rain like in the UK?
Persistant rainfall over a long period time can lead to floods, which can damage homes and businesses. This is quite common in the UK and in winter/spring melting snow can add to this
What are thunderstorms like in the UK?
Electrical storms bring torrential rain, lightening and strong winds ans can lead to flash floods. They’re most common in summer in the south and east of the uk
What is wind like in the UK?
They can be remnants of hurricanes coming across the atlantic, they can damage properties and disrupt power lines & transport.
They’re strongest in coastal areas eg west cost and upland areas
What is snow and ice like in the UK?
Less common in recent years in the UK, they can cause death & injuries due to slipping and cold. Also disrupts schools, transport and businesses
What is drought and extreme heat like in the UK?
Deought is the lack of precipitation, it can cause crop failures
What are heat waves like in the UK?
Sometime UK have long spells of dry, hot weather it can cause death due to heat exhaustion
How are weather systems in the UK becoming more extreme?
Weather systems cross the UK mainly from west to east are driven by winds from jet streams which moves north to south; they can stick in one position, resulting in a long period of the same weather eg heavy rain
How has temperature in the UK become more extreme?
December 2010 was the coldest but April 2011 was the warmest April on record
How has more frequent rain made weather in the UK more extreme?
2013 was one of the wettest years on record, and December 2010 was the wettest month
How has major flooding more often made weather in the UK more extreme?
Major flooding due to storms in somerset levels in 2013/2014 and in west wales in 2012.
Where is Somerset?
Its a country in south west england, the area is drained by several rivers eg the Tone and Parrett
What are the causes of the Somerset Levels flood?
1) . It eas the wettest January due to succession of depressions driven across the Atlantic Ocean brought a period of wet weather lasting severla weeks
2) . High tides & storm surges swept water up the rivers which prevented freshwater reaching the sea, so it spilled over river banks
3) . Rivers had not been dredged for at least 20 yrs, so they became clogged with sediment
What were the social impacts of the Somerset levels flood?
- over 609 houses flooded
- villages cut off eg moorland, this affected people’s dailt lives eg school
- many people had power supplies cut off
What were the economic impacts of the Somerset levels flood?
- Somerset county council estimated the damage to be more than £10 million
- over 14,000 ha of land was under water for 3-4 weeks
- over 1000 livesock evacuated
What were the environmental impacts of the Somerset levels flood?
- floodwaters were contaminated with sewage, oil & chemicals
- huge amount of debris to be cleared
- stagnent water had to be deoxygenated before being pumped back into rivers
What were the immediate responses to the Somerset levels flood?
- villages cut off, used boats to do shopping or go to school
- local volunteers have invaluable support
What were the long term responses to the Somerset levels flood?
- a £20 million flood action plan has been launched:
- river banks are being raised & more pumping stations built
- road levels raised to maintain communications
- rivers Tone & Parrett were dredged to increase capacity of river
How old is the earth?
Its believed to be 4.55 billion years old