Severe Storms :: Related Web Sites

NCDC: Climatic Extremes and Weather Events
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the world's largest active archive of weather data. NCDC produces numerous climate publications and responds to data requests from all over the world. This particular section of their site provides achival information on extreme weather events from around the world.

National Storm Prediction Center
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) monitors and forecasts severe and non-severe thunderstoms, tornadoes, and other hazardous weather phenomena across the counterminous U.S. -- 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

NWS Office of Meteorology: Hurricane Awareness
This site, provided by the National Weather Service's (NWS) Office of Meteorology, provides several on-line preparedness guides in both Spanish and English, current watches and warnings, on-line tracking charts, and links to many of the national agencies dealing with hurricane preparedness, response, and recovery.

Hurricane -- Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) has issued several on-line "Prevention Guides to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety Before, During, and After Emergencies and Disasters" in both English and Spanish.

Severe Storms :: Related Earth Observatory Articles

In the Eyewall of the Storm
As human population in coastal areas increases each year, the need to improve hurricane forecasting mounts. From Texas to Maine, more than 44 million people currently reside in coastal counties and barrier islands, and weekend and holiday tourists often increase that number significantly, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Hurricanes: The Greatest Storms on Earth
Few things in nature can compare to the destructive force of a hurricane. Called the greatest storm on Earth, a hurricane is capable of annihilating coastal areas with sustained winds of 155 mph or higher and intense areas of rainfall and a storm surge. In fact, during its life cycle a hurricane can expend as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs!

Seeing into the Heart of a Hurricane
Despite the forecasts that Hurricane Opal would hit their town in a little more than 24 hours, the residents of Pensacola, Florida, remained relatively calm on October 3, 1995. They pulled their boats out of the water, boarded up the beachfront businesses and went about their daily routines, fearing no more than perhaps a few fallen trees and a missed day of work. At that time, the National Hurricane Center predicted that Opal would remain a Category 1 storm, packing peak winds of around 90 miles per hour - a veritable creampuff as far as hurricanes go.

Hurricane Floyd: Fearing the Worst
Within days after Hurricane Floyd, North Carolina officials feared the worst for its coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Floodwaters flushed the contents of fuel tanks, pig waste lagoons, and human sewage treatment plants into the state's rivers and sounds and, ultimately, out into the Atlantic Ocean. The carcasses of pigs, chickens, and other dead animals floated in the soup of pesticides, fertilizer, and topsoil carried in the massive runoff. Even the sheer volume of the freshwater itself was a threat to the plant and animal species that prefer brackish or salt water.

Forecasting Fury
Experts at Colorado State University and the National Hurricane Center predict a period of elevated storm activity during the next 15 years. Along with a recent population boom along the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts, this heightened threat of hurricanes means increasing threats to life and property. But data from a NASA satellite instrument could allow researchers to detect potential hurricanes up to two days earlier than with traditional forecasting methods.

Reckoning Winds
1996 was a record year for tropical cyclones. Of 43 such storms, 20 intensified to typhoons, and six more to super-typhoons. The storms levy lasting devastation, claiming lives, inflicting injuries and causing millions of dollars in property damages.

Related Links: Dust & Smoke, Fires, Floods, General, Volcanoes

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