Effects on Human Society

Effects on human society[edit]
"Storm damage" redirects here. For the British television
film, see Storm Damage.
See also: Acid rain, Effects of tropical
cyclones, Hail, Lightning, Snow, Wildfire, Wind, and Wind
shear


A snow blockade in southernMinnesota, US in 1881


A return stroke, cloud-to-groundlightning strike during a thunderstorm.
Shipwrecks are common with the passage of strong tropical
cyclones. Such shipwrecks can change the course of
history,
[12]
as well as influence art and literature. 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.
[13]

Strong winds from any storm type can damage or destroy
vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects,
turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles. In the
United States, major hurricanes comprise just 21% of all
landfalling tropical cyclones, but account for 83% of all
damage.
[14]
Tropical cyclones often knock out power to tens
or hundreds of thousands of people, preventing vital
communication and hampering rescue efforts.
[15]
Tropical
cyclones often destroy key bridges, overpasses, and roads,
complicating efforts to transport food, clean water, and
medicine to the areas that need it. Furthermore, the damage
caused by tropical cyclones to buildings and dwellings can
result in economic damage to a region, and to a diaspora of
the population of the region.
[16]

The storm surge, or the increase in sea level due to the
cyclone, is typically the worst effect from landfalling tropical
cyclones, historically resulting in 90% of tropical cyclone
deaths.
[16]
The relatively quick surge in sea level can move
miles/kilometers inland, flooding homes and cutting off
escape routes. 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.
Cloud-to-ground lightning frequently occur within the
phenomena of thunderstorms and have numerous hazards
towards landscapes and populations. One of the more
significant hazards lightning can pose is the wildfires they
are capable of igniting.
[17]
Under a regime of low
precipitation (LP) thunderstorms, where little precipitation is
present, rainfall cannot prevent fires from starting when
vegetation is dry as lightning produces a concentrated
amount of extreme heat.
[18]
Wildfires can devastate
vegetation and the biodiversity of an ecosystem. 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.
Direct damage caused by lightning strikes occurs on
occasion.
[19]
In areas with a high frequency for cloud-to-
ground lightning, like Florida, lightning causes several
fatalities per year, most commonly to people working
outside.
[20]

Precipitation with low potential of hydrogen levels (pH),
otherwise known as acid rain, is also a frequent risk
produced by lightning. Distilled water, which contains
no carbon dioxide, has a neutral pH of 7. Liquids with a pH
less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater than 7
are bases. “Clean” or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH
of about 5.2, because carbon dioxide and water in the air
react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid (pH 5.6 in
distilled water), but unpolluted rain also contains other
chemicals.
[21]
Nitric oxide present during thunderstorm
phenomena,
[22]
caused by the splitting of nitrogen
molecules, can result in the production of acid rain, if nitric
oxide forms compounds with the water molecules in
precipitation, thus creating acid rain. Acid rain can damage
infrastructures containing calcite or other solid chemical
compounds containing carbon. 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.
[23]

Hail damage to roofs often goes unnoticed until further
structural damage is seen, such as leaks or cracks. It is
hardest to recognize hail damage on shingled roofs and flat
roofs, but all roofs have their own hail damage detection
problems.
[6]
Metal roofs are fairly resistant to hail damage,
but may accumulate cosmetic damage in the form of dents
and damaged coatings.
[24]
Hail is also a common nuisance
to drivers of automobiles, severely denting the vehicle and
cracking or even shattering windshields and windows.
Rarely, massive hailstones have been known to
cause concussions or fatal head trauma. Hailstorms have
been the cause of costly and deadly events throughout
history. One of the earliest recorded incidents occurred
around the 9th century
in Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India.
[25]
The largest hailstone in
terms of diameter and weight ever recorded in the United
States fell on July 23, 2010 in Vivian, South Dakota in the
United States; it measured 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter and
18.62 inches (47.3 cm) in circumference, weighing in at 1.93
pounds (0.88 kg).
[26]
This broke the previous record for
diameter set by a hailstone 7 inches diameter and
18.75 inches circumference which fell in Aurora,
Nebraska in the United States on June 22, 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.
[26]

Various hazards, ranging from hail to lightning can have an
impact on outside technology facilities, such
as antennas, satellite dishes, and towers. As a result,
companies with outside facilities have begun installing such
facilities underground, in order to reduce the risk of damage
from storms.
[27]

Substantial snowfall can disrupt public infrastructure and
services, slowing human activity even in regions that are
accustomed to such weather. Air and ground transport may
be greatly inhibited or shut down entirely. 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.
Basic utilities such as electricity, telephone lines, and gas
supply can also fail. In addition, snow can make roads much
harder to travel and vehicles attempting to use them can
easily become stuck.
[28]

The combined effects can lead to a "snow day" on which
gatherings such as school, work, or church are officially
canceled. In areas that normally have very little or no snow,
a snow day may occur when there is only light accumulation
or even the threat of snowfall, since those areas are
unprepared to handle any amount of snow. In some areas,
such as some states in the United States, schools are given
a yearly quota of snow days (or "calamity days"). Once the
quota is exceeded, the snow days must be made
up.
[29][30][31]
In other states, all snow days must be made
up.
[32]
For example, schools may extend the remaining
school days later into the afternoon, shorten spring break, or
delay the start ofsummer vacation.
Accumulated snow is removed to make travel easier and
safer, and to decrease the long-term impact of a heavy
snowfall. This process utilizes shovels and snowplows, and
is often assisted by sprinkling salt or other chloride-based
chemicals, which reduce the melting temperature of
snow.
[33]
In some areas with abundant snowfall, such
as Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, people harvest snow and
store it surrounded by insulation in ice houses. This allows
the snow to be used through the summer for refrigeration
and air conditioning, which requires far less electricity than
traditional cooling methods.
[34]

Agriculture[edit]
Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles,
aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock, and
most commonly, farmers' crops.
[35]
Wheat, corn, soybeans,
and tobacco are the most sensitive crops to hail
damage.
[36]
Hail is one of Canada's most expensive
hazards.
[37]
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.
[38]
Although tropical cyclones take an
enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be
important factors in the precipitation regimes of places they
affect and bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry
regions. Hurricanes in the eastern north Pacific often supply
moisture to the Southwestern United States and parts of
Mexico.
[39]
Japan receives over half of its rainfall from
typhoons.
[40]
Hurricane Camille averted drought conditions
and ended water deficits along much of its path,
[41]
though it
also killed 259 people and caused $9.14 billion (2005 USD)
in damage.
Aviation[edit]


Effect of wind shear on aircraft trajectory. Merely correcting for the
initial gust front can have dire consequences.
Hail is one of the most significant thunderstorm hazards to
aircraft.
[42]
When hail stones exceed 0.5 inches (13 mm) in
diameter, planes can be seriously damaged within
seconds.
[43]
The hailstones accumulating on the ground can
also be hazardous to landing aircraft. Strong wind outflow
from thunderstorms causes rapid changes in the three-
dimensional wind velocity just above ground level. Initially,
this outflow causes a headwind that increases airspeed,
which normally causes a pilot to reduce engine power if they
are unaware of the wind shear. As the aircraft passes into
the region of the downdraft, the localized headwind
diminishes, reducing the aircraft's airspeed and increasing
its sink rate. Then, when the aircraft passes through the
other side of the downdraft, the headwind becomes a
tailwind, reducing lift generated by the wings, and leaving
the aircraft in a low-power, low-speed descent. This can
lead to an accident if the aircraft is too low to effect a
recovery before ground contact. 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.
(NEXRAD)
[44]

Recreation[edit]
Many winter sports, such
as skiing,
[45]
snowboarding,
[46]
snowmobiling,
[47]
and snowsh
oeing depend upon snow. Where snow is scarce but the
temperature is low enough, snow cannons may be used to
produce an adequate amount for such sports.
[48]
Children
and adults can play on a sled or ride in a sleigh. Although a
person's footsteps remain a visible lifeline within a snow-
covered landscape, snow cover is considered a general
danger to hiking since the snow obscures landmarks and
makes the landscape itself appear uniform.
[49]




EFFECTS OF TROPICAL CYCLONES
Tropical cyclone constitutes one of the most destructive natural disasters that affects many
countries around the globe and exacts tremendous annual losses in lives and property. Its impact
is greatest over the coastal areas, which bear the brunt of the strong surface winds, squalls,
induced tornadoes, and flooding from heavy rains, rather than strong winds, that cause the
greatest loss in lives and destruction to property in coastal areas.

STRONG WINDS
A squall is defined as an event in which the surface wind increases in
magnitude above the mean by factors of 1.2 to 1.6 or higher and is
maintained over a time interval of several minutes to one half hour. The
spatial scales would be roughly 2 to 10 km. The increase in wind may
occur suddenly or gradually. These development near landfall lead to
unexpectedly large damage.


TORNADOES
Tornadoes are tropical cyclone spawned which are to expected for
about half of the storms of tropical storm intensity. These are heavily
concentrated in the right front quadrant of the storm (relative to the track) in
regions where the air has had a relatively short trajectory over land. These
form in conjunction with strong convection.




RAINFALL AND FLOODING
Rainfall associated with tropical cyclones is both beneficial and
harmful. Although the rains contribute to the water
needs of the areas traversed by the cyclones, the
rains are harmful when the amount is so large as to
cause flooding.




STORM SURGE
The storm surge is an abnormal rise of water due to a tropical cyclone
and it is an oceanic event responding to meteorological driving forces.
Potentially disastrous surges occur along coasts with low-lying terrain that
allows inland inundation, or across inland water bodies such as bays,
estuaries, lakes and rivers. For riverine situations, the surge is sea water
moving up the river. A fresh water flooding moving down a river due to rain
generally occurs days after a storm event and is not considered a storm
surge. For a typical storm, the surge affects about 160 km of coastline for a
period of several hours. Larger storms that are moving slowly may impact
considerably longer stretches of coastline.


The term "typhoon" refers to a tropical, cyclonic storm that
originates in the western Pacific Ocean (in the Atlantic, this
type of storm is referred to as a hurricane). Typhoons are
characterized by large masses of clouds, which spiral around
a central point, or eye. Infamous for their destructive powers,
typhoons can generate winds of more than 75 miles/hour and
have been known to cause flash floods with their intensive
rainfall. Buildings and infrastructure, trees and other
vegetation, watercraft and water operations, and human and
animal life can all be affected.

Buildings and Infrastructure
The two most destructive forces associated with typhoons are
wind and rain. According to the Green Fun website, typhoon
winds can affect buildings and other structures in two ways:
through direct force and through projectiles. Direct force is when a
wind gust slams directly into a building or structure and causes
physical damage, such as when wind blows the roof off a home.
Wind can also inflict damage by picking up and launching debris
and other items, such as tree branches and building materials,
into buildings and other structures. The heavy and persistent
rainfall that typhoons bring can also have devastating effects. In
addition to making homes uninhabitable, the flooding associated
with typhoons can make roads impassable, which can cripple
rescue and aid efforts.

Trees and Other Vegetation
Typhoons can also affect the natural environment, and cause
harm to trees and other vegetation, including crops that
communities may rely on for sustenance or trade, or both. Strong
winds can snap branches; detach and injure leaves, flowers, fruits
and seeds; and uproot trees and plants. Flooding can produce
over-saturation and drown out vegetation. Typhoons also deposit
large quantities of salt onto plant life, which can have adverse
effects. According to the Green Fun website, trees and vegetation
in urban areas are more susceptible to typhoon damage, as they
tend to grow in poor, restricted soil conditions.

Watercraft and Water Operations

In addition to causing mayhem on land, typhoons are also well-
known for stirring up the seas. Individuals on watercraft or those
performing water operations (such as on oil rigs) not only have to
contend with heavy winds and rain, but they have to deal with
massive waves and, in general, turbulent water conditions.
According to the Naval Historical Center website, typhoons have
a history of causing harm out at sea, and this was especially true
during World War II, when Pacific naval fleets were regularly
battered by the storms. Today, fishing boats, cruise ships and
other vessels rely on sophisticated technology to help them
predict and avoid the devastating effects of typhoons.

Life
Both human and animal life can be impacted, and ultimately
taken, by the destructive forces of typhoons. While this can occur
directly, such as if an individual is struck by debris or is caught in
a building collapse, perhaps the more silent killer is the lack of
available resources and infrastructure that results. According to
the Facts and Details website, flooding from typhoons can destroy
food stocks and supplies, and spread disease. When
communities are cut off by typhoons, individuals may not be able
to get the medical attention they so desperately need, and
starvation becomes a big risk as well.