Raman+Badesha

__** Topic 1 Is weather becoming more **__ __** extreme? **__ ** • Are major storms (such as hurricanes) ** ** becoming more frequent and more intense? **  Yes, in the north Atlantic for example, there has been a increase in frequency overtime. From 1850-1990, the long term average of storms was about 10 per year. From 1998-2007, the long term average has increased to about 15 per year. Some of the causes for the increase in storms includes, global warming, and the rise in the sea surface temperature. With the frequent hurricanes, comes the higher intensity of the storms. ** • Are there more episodes of droughts and ** ** flooding around the world than there were in ** ** the past? **  There are three things happening now, that make it seem like there is a increase in flooding. One is that, the population in the US (and the world), has increased and flooding affects more people than it used too. Two is that, the media covers just about anything happening in the world, so we hear about floods frequently. Third, floods are worse these days because of the changes people have made. All these things make it seem like there is more flooding, but there is not. It is raining normally, but all the rain that falls moves into a river quickly, but the rivers are more narrower than they used to be, thus creating more severe floods. ** • Are temperature extremes greater than they ** ** have been historically? **  Yes there is, there is a very high risk of high temperature extremes, with more extreme heat in the future. This has been confirmed for most of the world, and this means that there will be less frosty days and more heat and heat waves. For example in Europe, the frequency of hot days has almost tripled between, 1880 and 2005. Overtime the low temperature extremes have become less frequent, and geographically the maximum temperature of is projected to increase greatly. __** Bibliography **__ http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/question665.htm http://www.pewclimate.org/hurricanes.cfm#freq http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch10s10-3-6-2.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/evidence/extreme.shtml