ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Introduction

The forecast of severe Weather is part of the meteorology of operations that attempt to predict the development, intensity, type of risk and the areas affected by the storms that can give large hail, and winds destructive of tornadoes and the rain torrential.

The task of the forecaster is to understand first how a thunderstorm develops, and to analyze the current and future potential of the storm over the areas under its responsibility and finally to apply diagnostic techniques and computer simulations to predict their development. Follow the evolution of storms involves various means, ranging from reporting by local observer systems to remote sensing as the weather radar. People must be alerted, through bulletins in the media and local authorities when storms approach the thresholds for developing violent.

Atwood, M. 2009. The year of the flood: a novel. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. Pp: 51-58

Flash floods occur when water levels rise rapidly and inundate low-lying areas. The United States National Weather Service defines flash floods as floods that occur within 6 hours of their cause, which may include heavy rainfall, ice dam breakage, and dam or levee failures. Flash floods cause minor to severe damage, injury, or death, and often disrupt transportation systems. Although some regions are more likely to experience flash floods than are others, they can occur anywhere in the world.

Apart from the damage to infrastructure caused by flash floods, people are vulnerable to the flood waters themselves. Thousands of people killed or injured by flash floods each year due to drowning or the debris flowing within the water. In the United States, flash floods kill approximately 100 people per year, more than any other weather-related hazard except for extreme heat. Nearly half of those deaths are of people trapped inside or attempting to escape from their vehicles after driving through high water. Thousands more require speedy rescue from emergency response teams.

To reduce the number of deaths and injuries, local, state, and federal flood risk management agencies have launched numerous public education campaigns, such as “Turn Around, do not Drown” from the National Weather Service. Arizona state law has made driving into stormy waters illegal, and punishment includes fines to cover rescue costs. The National Weather Service also provides public alerts that include flash flood “watches,” which indicate the possibility of flash flooding for a given area, and “warnings,” which indicate that flash floods are occurring or imminent in a given area.

The Storm Events database from the United States National Climatic Data Center compiles flash flood data collected by National Weather Service weather forecast offices as reported by media sources and “spotter” networks formed of both officials and citizens. As a result, the reports are incomplete and generally concentrated in urban areas, particularly those with weather forecast offices. However, Storm Events provide the most comprehensive collection of flash flood data that include meteorological and hydrology information, as well as casualty and damage statistics.

Bollig, M. 2006. Risk management in a hazardous environment a comparative study of two pastoral ...