Page 272 - Geosystems An Introduction to Physical Geography 4th Canadian Edition

THEhumanDENOMINATOR 8 Weather
WEATHER HUMANS
• Frontal activity and midlatitude cyclones bring severe weather that affects transportation systems and daily life.
• Severe weather events such as ice storms, damaging winds, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones cause destruction and human casualties.
HUMANS WEATHER
• Rising temperatures with climate change have caused shrinking spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Sea-level rise is increasing hurricane storm surge on the U.S. east coast.
Rain
Warm Air
Cold Air
Cold Air
Freezing rain Snow
8a
An ice-covered car sits beside Lake Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland, during a February 2012 Arctic cold snap that brought freezing temperatures as far south as North Africa, claiming 300 lives. Ice storms occur when freezing rain (illustrated at right)
causes at least 6.4 mm of ice to accumulate on exposed surfaces. [Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images; NOAA.]
8c
An EF-5 tornado, almost 2 km
wide at its base, tore across
Alabama in April 2011.
The tornado hit Tuscaloosa (pictured here) near the University of Alabama, where 44 people died, and continued on to hit the suburbs of Birmingham. As thunderstorms intensify with climate change, tornado frequency may increase. [x77/press/Newscom; David Mabel/Alamy.]
ISSUES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
8b
In February 2011, 100 cm of snow fell on parts of South Korea’s east coast over a 2-day period, the heaviest since record keeping began in 1911. The unusually cold weather may be driven in part by the Arctic Oscillation (see pages 168–169) and in part by the trend toward more extreme snowfall events associated with climate change. [Yu Hyung-jae/AP.]
• Global snowfall will decrease, with less snow falling during a shorter winter season; however, extreme snowfall events (blizzards) will increase in intensity. Lake-effect snowfall, transitioning to rainfall, will increase owing to increased lake temperatures.
• Increasing ocean temperatures with climate change will strengthen the intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones by the end of the century.
geosystemsconnection
Weather is the expression of the interactions of energy, water, water vapour, and the atmosphere at any given moment. The patterns of precipitation produced across the globe form the input to sur- face water supplies in lakes, rivers, glaciers, and groundwater—the final components in our study of the hydrologic cycle. in the next chapter, we examine these surface water resources and the inputs and outputs of the water-balance model. Water quality and quantity and the availability of potable water loom as major issues for the global society.
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