Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77106
E. Makaudze
Malawi continues to face unprecedented challenges imposed by extreme weather events—drought in particular. Because the economy is heavily dependent on climatesensitive agriculture, Malawi is highly vulnerable to extreme drought events. Faced with a growing number of extreme drought events, the government of Malawi is determined to implement weather index insurance as part and parcel of its nationwide disaster risk mitigation strategy. This study seeks to interrogate and highlight the obstacles that have hampered successful implementation and development of weather index insurance in Malawi beyond the pilot phase. The study draws on a few examples to demonstrate other countries’ successful experience with weather index insurance as a drought risk mitigation tool. The study concludes by highlighting important lessons that could help the government of Malawi to re-think the next phase of development of weather index insurance program as an effective risk protection strategy against extreme drought events.
{"title":"Malawi’s Experience with Weather Index Insurance as Agricultural Risk Mitigation Strategy Against Extreme Drought Events 1","authors":"E. Makaudze","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77106","url":null,"abstract":"Malawi continues to face unprecedented challenges imposed by extreme weather events—drought in particular. Because the economy is heavily dependent on climatesensitive agriculture, Malawi is highly vulnerable to extreme drought events. Faced with a growing number of extreme drought events, the government of Malawi is determined to implement weather index insurance as part and parcel of its nationwide disaster risk mitigation strategy. This study seeks to interrogate and highlight the obstacles that have hampered successful implementation and development of weather index insurance in Malawi beyond the pilot phase. The study draws on a few examples to demonstrate other countries’ successful experience with weather index insurance as a drought risk mitigation tool. The study concludes by highlighting important lessons that could help the government of Malawi to re-think the next phase of development of weather index insurance program as an effective risk protection strategy against extreme drought events.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129243515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75559
Martínez-Austria Polioptro F, Bandala Erick R.
According to climate change scenarios, the average annual temperature will increase by around 4°C if current trends continue. Maximum temperatures, however, have already registered higher values in different regions of the world, increasing the number, dura - tion and intensity of heat waves. With the increase of maximum temperatures and the increase of significance of heat wave events, reports of mortality episodes due to heat effects have been increasing. According to the information from the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 5 of the 20 deadliest disasters between 1996 and 2015 were heat wave events. This chapter analyzes heat wave events, the criteria for determining dangerous temperature thresholds, as well as trends already observed, and those expected due to climate change. Heat wave events are correlated with observed increases on mortality rates, and recommendations are suggested to prevent their effects on human health.
{"title":"Heat Waves: Health Effects, Observed Trends and Climate Change","authors":"Martínez-Austria Polioptro F, Bandala Erick R.","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75559","url":null,"abstract":"According to climate change scenarios, the average annual temperature will increase by around 4°C if current trends continue. Maximum temperatures, however, have already registered higher values in different regions of the world, increasing the number, dura - tion and intensity of heat waves. With the increase of maximum temperatures and the increase of significance of heat wave events, reports of mortality episodes due to heat effects have been increasing. According to the information from the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 5 of the 20 deadliest disasters between 1996 and 2015 were heat wave events. This chapter analyzes heat wave events, the criteria for determining dangerous temperature thresholds, as well as trends already observed, and those expected due to climate change. Heat wave events are correlated with observed increases on mortality rates, and recommendations are suggested to prevent their effects on human health.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"95 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129842868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74947
C. Hong, Yi-Kai Wu
In this chapter, we reported the effect of basin-scale climate regime shift (CRS) on the abrupt change of tropical cyclone (TC) activity in various genesis basins, including the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. An analysis of regime shift index reveals that the worldwide TC activity experienced four significant abrupt changes during 1960 – 2014, including (i) an abrupt increase/decrease in the eastern North Pacific (ENP)/western North Pacific (WNP) in the early 1970s, (ii) an abrupt increase in the ENP and WNP in the early 1980s, (iii) an abrupt increase in the North Atlantic and ENP in the middle 1990s, and (iv) an abrupt decrease in the WNP and western South Pacific in the late 1990s. Three of them are identified concurrent with a significant CRS. The possible influence of a CRS on the abrupt change of TC activity in various genesis regions is addressed. We demonstrate that a CRS induced time mean state shift results in a rapid change in the large-scale dynamic and thermodynamic conditions, which substantially contributes to the abrupt change of TC activity in various genesis regions. In addition the CRS, the effect of interdecadal variability, such as the interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, on the abrupt change of TC activity was discussed.
{"title":"Influence of Climate Regime Shift on the Abrupt Change of Tropical Cyclone Activity in Various Genesis Regions","authors":"C. Hong, Yi-Kai Wu","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74947","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74947","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, we reported the effect of basin-scale climate regime shift (CRS) on the abrupt change of tropical cyclone (TC) activity in various genesis basins, including the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. An analysis of regime shift index reveals that the worldwide TC activity experienced four significant abrupt changes during 1960 – 2014, including (i) an abrupt increase/decrease in the eastern North Pacific (ENP)/western North Pacific (WNP) in the early 1970s, (ii) an abrupt increase in the ENP and WNP in the early 1980s, (iii) an abrupt increase in the North Atlantic and ENP in the middle 1990s, and (iv) an abrupt decrease in the WNP and western South Pacific in the late 1990s. Three of them are identified concurrent with a significant CRS. The possible influence of a CRS on the abrupt change of TC activity in various genesis regions is addressed. We demonstrate that a CRS induced time mean state shift results in a rapid change in the large-scale dynamic and thermodynamic conditions, which substantially contributes to the abrupt change of TC activity in various genesis regions. In addition the CRS, the effect of interdecadal variability, such as the interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, on the abrupt change of TC activity was discussed.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133701451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77306
V. Balabukh, O. Lavrynenko, Volodymyr Bilaniuk, AndriyMykhnovych, O. Pylypovych
Extreme weather is in the attention focus of many scientists and managers during the last decades. The leading aspect of these phenomena investigations in the recent years is the risk of material and human losses and damage mitigation. Especially, the interest is with regard to effects of weather extremities on natural systems and social processes such as land use practices, water resources management, emergency management, and planning. The main objectives of the investigations are clarifying of spectrum, space and time regularities of extreme weather events occurring in Ukraine as well as their inten - sity, duration, daily and seasonal variation, spreading, recurrence in the regions, and their changes analyzed. Applying statistical and geographical space–time analyses, the main regularities of the extreme weather events’ occurrence have been described as well as the trends and intensity of the extreme weather regime changes in Ukraine have been calculated and assessed. can reach Polissia have of (average) and 120 (maximal). Recurrence in the is once per the varies between 20 and 29 and the maximal between 50 and 70
{"title":"Extreme Weather Events in Ukraine: Occurrence and Changes","authors":"V. Balabukh, O. Lavrynenko, Volodymyr Bilaniuk, AndriyMykhnovych, O. Pylypovych","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.77306","url":null,"abstract":"Extreme weather is in the attention focus of many scientists and managers during the last decades. The leading aspect of these phenomena investigations in the recent years is the risk of material and human losses and damage mitigation. Especially, the interest is with regard to effects of weather extremities on natural systems and social processes such as land use practices, water resources management, emergency management, and planning. The main objectives of the investigations are clarifying of spectrum, space and time regularities of extreme weather events occurring in Ukraine as well as their inten - sity, duration, daily and seasonal variation, spreading, recurrence in the regions, and their changes analyzed. Applying statistical and geographical space–time analyses, the main regularities of the extreme weather events’ occurrence have been described as well as the trends and intensity of the extreme weather regime changes in Ukraine have been calculated and assessed. can reach Polissia have of (average) and 120 (maximal). Recurrence in the is once per the varies between 20 and 29 and the maximal between 50 and 70","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124510270","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75688
C. Navia, Marcel N. de Oliveira, C. Augusto
We report two ground-level observations, of geomagnetic storms of different origins; they are among the highest geomagnetic storms, in the solar Cycle 24. The first is St. Patrick ’ s Day storm on March 17, 2015, originated by the impact on Earth ’ s atmosphere of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the storm reaching the condition of G4 (severe) level, in the NOAA geomagnetic scale. The second included the major geomagnetic storm whose origin is attributed to the interaction with the Earth of a High-Speed Stream (HSS) ahead of a positive polarity coronal hole on October 7, 2015. This storm reached the condition G3 (strong) level. We give emphasis to observations detected by the New-Tupi muon tele- scopes, located at sea level in Brazil (22.53 (cid:1) S, 43.13 (cid:1) W). We present a study of these observations in correlation with observations reported by multipoint space-based mea- surements, such as the ACE at Lagrange Point L1 and the geostationary GOES weather satellite, including two global geomagnetic indices and several ground-based detectors. Some considerations on the influence of these geomagnetic storms in the Earth weather are reported.
{"title":"The Highest Geomagnetic Storms of the Solar Cycle Observed at Ground Level","authors":"C. Navia, Marcel N. de Oliveira, C. Augusto","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75688","url":null,"abstract":"We report two ground-level observations, of geomagnetic storms of different origins; they are among the highest geomagnetic storms, in the solar Cycle 24. The first is St. Patrick ’ s Day storm on March 17, 2015, originated by the impact on Earth ’ s atmosphere of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the storm reaching the condition of G4 (severe) level, in the NOAA geomagnetic scale. The second included the major geomagnetic storm whose origin is attributed to the interaction with the Earth of a High-Speed Stream (HSS) ahead of a positive polarity coronal hole on October 7, 2015. This storm reached the condition G3 (strong) level. We give emphasis to observations detected by the New-Tupi muon tele- scopes, located at sea level in Brazil (22.53 (cid:1) S, 43.13 (cid:1) W). We present a study of these observations in correlation with observations reported by multipoint space-based mea- surements, such as the ACE at Lagrange Point L1 and the geostationary GOES weather satellite, including two global geomagnetic indices and several ground-based detectors. Some considerations on the influence of these geomagnetic storms in the Earth weather are reported.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"7 Suppl 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122908523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-29DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75910
Zifeng Yu, Yuqing Wang
Accurate prediction of rainfall distribution in landfalling tropical cyclones (LTCs) is very important to disaster prevention but quite challenging to operational forecasters. This chapter will describe the rainfall distribution in LTCs, including both axisymmetric and asymmetric distributions and their major controlling parameters, such as environmental vertical wind shear, TC intensity and motion, and coastline. In addition to the composite results from many LTC cases, several case studies are also given to illustrate the predomi-nant factors that are key to the asymmetric rainfall distribution in LTCs. Future directions in this area and potential ways to improve the operational forecasts of rainfall distribution in LTCs are also discussed briefly. importance to meteorologists and disaster preventions.
{"title":"Rainfall Distribution in Landfalling Tropical Cyclones","authors":"Zifeng Yu, Yuqing Wang","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.75910","url":null,"abstract":"Accurate prediction of rainfall distribution in landfalling tropical cyclones (LTCs) is very important to disaster prevention but quite challenging to operational forecasters. This chapter will describe the rainfall distribution in LTCs, including both axisymmetric and asymmetric distributions and their major controlling parameters, such as environmental vertical wind shear, TC intensity and motion, and coastline. In addition to the composite results from many LTC cases, several case studies are also given to illustrate the predomi-nant factors that are key to the asymmetric rainfall distribution in LTCs. Future directions in this area and potential ways to improve the operational forecasts of rainfall distribution in LTCs are also discussed briefly. importance to meteorologists and disaster preventions.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"92 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129382496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-03-02DOI: 10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74548
A. Assani
The goals of this study were (1) to compare the long-term trend of the interannual vari- ability of maximum daily temperatures for four summer months (June, July, August, and September) using the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Mann-Kendall tests and (2) to analyze the link between these temperatures and El Niño events of varying intensities using the linear correlation method. Data from 23 stations for the period from 1950 to 2010 were analyzed. As far as the analysis of the long-term trend is concerned, the observed warming is greater for the last 2 months (August and September) than for the first 2 months (June and July) of the summer season, likely as a result of the warming of ocean surface waters. As for the link between El Niño events and summer maximum daily temperatures, a negative correlation was highlighted for the first time between these two variables for southern Quebec. However, this correlation is only observed for the two “cooler” summer months (June and September), likely due to a weak influence of site (station) characteristics on maximum daily temperature variations.
{"title":"Comparison of the Temporal Variability of Maximum Daily Temperatures for Summer Months in Relation to El Nino Events in Southern Québec","authors":"A. Assani","doi":"10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5772/INTECHOPEN.74548","url":null,"abstract":"The goals of this study were (1) to compare the long-term trend of the interannual vari- ability of maximum daily temperatures for four summer months (June, July, August, and September) using the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Mann-Kendall tests and (2) to analyze the link between these temperatures and El Niño events of varying intensities using the linear correlation method. Data from 23 stations for the period from 1950 to 2010 were analyzed. As far as the analysis of the long-term trend is concerned, the observed warming is greater for the last 2 months (August and September) than for the first 2 months (June and July) of the summer season, likely as a result of the warming of ocean surface waters. As for the link between El Niño events and summer maximum daily temperatures, a negative correlation was highlighted for the first time between these two variables for southern Quebec. However, this correlation is only observed for the two “cooler” summer months (June and September), likely due to a weak influence of site (station) characteristics on maximum daily temperature variations.","PeriodicalId":179039,"journal":{"name":"Extreme Weather","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121302216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}