Extreme weather

Weather - the changes in climate, temperature, rainfall and wind - can bring many advantages for mankind, but it can also be incredibly destructive. Take, for example, tropical storms which can become hurricanes (also known as typhoons or cyclones depending on which part of the world they effect). They can cause catastrophic damage when they hit land. Similarly we have seen severe damage as a result of other examples of extreme weather such as the tornados in Oklahoma and the floods in the Czech Republic.
Take a look at this animation to see how hurricanes can be formed and this one to see how tornadoes occur.
S-Cool has a clear and simple page on how weather can affect human activity. There are also good revision summaries on this webpage and on this one. You can also look at this video on Hurricane Katrina.


For footage of the recent tornados that his Oklahoma in the United States, have a look at the video
below:


In Europe, flooding has been the latest weather threat with flooding hitting Central Europe and the Czech Republic in particular: