Severe weather

Various forms of severe weather

Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life.[1][2][3] These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High winds, hail, excessive precipitation, and wildfires are forms and effects, as are thunderstorms, downbursts, tornadoes, waterspouts, tropical cyclones, and extratropical cyclones. Regional and seasonal phenomena include blizzards (snowstorms), ice storms, and duststorms.[4]

Severe weather is one type of extreme weather, which includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather and is by definition rare for that location or time of the year.[5] Due to the effects of climate change, the frequency and intensity of some of the extreme weather events are increasing, for example, heatwaves and droughts.[6]: 9 

  1. ^ World Meteorological Organization (October 2004). "Workshop On Severe and ExPOO Events Forecasting". Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
  2. ^ "Severe Weather 101 – NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory". nssl.noaa.gov. Archived from the original on 21 September 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  3. ^ "Severe Weather Facts". factsjustforkids.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  4. ^ Glossary of Meteorology (2009). "Severe weather". American Meteorological Society. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2009.
  5. ^ IPCC, 2024: Annex II: Glossary Archived 14 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine [Möller, V., R. van Diemen, J.B.R. Matthews, C. Méndez, S. Semenov, J.S. Fuglestvedt, A. Reisinger (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Archived 28 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 2897–2930, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.029.
  6. ^ IPCC, 2022: Summary for Policymakers Archived 22 January 2023 at the Wayback Machine [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, M. Tignor, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem (eds.)]. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Archived 28 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 3–33, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.001.