Storm
Storms do not only occur on Earth; other planetary bodies with a sufficient atmosphere (giant planets in particular) also undergo stormy weather.
[11] Though technically an anticyclone, with greater than hurricane wind speeds, it is larger than the Earth and has persisted for at least 340 years, having first been observed by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
In September 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope – using Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 – imaged storms on Saturn generated by upwelling of warmer air, similar to a terrestrial thunderhead.
A hurricane led to a victory of the Spanish over the French for control of Fort Caroline, and ultimately the Atlantic coast of North America, in 1565.
[18] Strong winds from any storm type can damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles.
[19] Tropical cyclones often knock out power to tens or hundreds of thousands of people, preventing vital communication and hampering rescue efforts.
[20] Tropical cyclones often destroy key bridges, overpasses, and roads, complicating efforts to transport food, clean water, and medicine to the areas that need it.
The storm surges and winds of hurricanes may be destructive to human-made structures, but they also stir up the waters of coastal estuaries, which are typically important fish breeding locales.
Wildfires that occur close to urban environments can inflict damages upon infrastructures, buildings, crops, and provide risks to explosions, should the flames be exposed to gas pipes.
In ecosystems, acid rain can dissolve plant tissues of vegetations and increase acidification process in bodies of water and in soil, resulting in deaths of marine and terrestrial organisms.
[31] This broke the previous record for diameter set by a hailstone 7 inches (18 cm) diameter and 18.75 inches (47.6 cm) circumference which fell in Aurora, Nebraska in the United States on 22 June 2003, as well as the record for weight, set by a hailstone of 1.67 pounds (0.76 kg) that fell in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1970.
Populations living in snow-prone areas have developed various ways to travel across the snow, such as skis, snowshoes, and sleds pulled by horses, dogs, or other animals and later, snowmobiles.
[38] In some areas with abundant snowfall, such as Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, people harvest snow and store it surrounded by insulation in ice houses.
[39] Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock, and most commonly, farmers' crops.
[42] Snowfall can be beneficial to agriculture by serving as a thermal insulator, conserving the heat of the Earth and protecting crops from subfreezing weather.
Some agricultural areas depend on an accumulation of snow during winter that will melt gradually in spring, providing water for crop growth.
If it melts into water and refreezes upon sensitive crops, such as oranges, the resulting ice will protect the fruit from exposure to lower temperatures.
[45] Hurricane Camille averted drought conditions and ended water deficits along much of its path,[46] though it also killed 259 people and caused $9.14 billion (2005 USD) in damage.
As the result of the accidents in the 1970s and 1980s, in 1988 the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration mandated that all commercial aircraft have on-board wind shear detection systems by 1993.
Between 1964 and 1985, wind shear directly caused or contributed to 26 major civil transport aircraft accidents in the U.S. that led to 620 deaths and 200 injuries.
Since 1995, the number of major civil aircraft accidents caused by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years, due to the mandated on-board detection as well as the addition of Doppler weather radar units on the ground.
The flood covered even the highest mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet, and all creatures died; only Noah and those with him on the Ark were left alive.
The story was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on 17 May 1900, and has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, and adapted for use in other media.
Erik Larson excerpts a passage from that article in his 2005 book, Isaac's Storm:[57] Numerous other accounts of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 have been made in print and in film.
The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of 15–16 October 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France.
The Romantic seascape painters J. M. W. Turner and Ivan Aivazovsky created some of the most lasting impressions of the sublime and stormy seas that are firmly imprinted on the popular mind.
Aivazovsky left several thousand turbulent canvases in which he increasingly eliminated human figures and historical background to focus on such essential elements as light, sea, and sky.
The flood, caused by the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam after days of extremely heavy rainfall, prompted the first major disaster relief effort by the American Red Cross, directed by Clara Barton.
Warner Bros.' 2000 dramatic disaster film The Perfect Storm, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is an adaptation of Sebastian Junger's 1997 non-fiction book of the same title.
