Extreme Weather Events
Know about extreme weather events — hurricanes (spinning storms over warm ocean), tornadoes (violent rotating columns of air), floods, droughts, and blizzards — how they form, where they typically occur, and their effects on people and the environment
What a learner can do afterwards
- Describe how at least two types of extreme weather form
- Explain where hurricanes and tornadoes typically occur and why
- Describe the effects of extreme weather on communities and landscapes
The lesson
You already know that water evaporates into the sky and that wind is just air on the move. Extreme weather uses those same ideas on a much bigger scale. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, and blizzards are called extreme weather because they are far more powerful than an ordinary day, and they can change a place fast.
A hurricane is a giant spinning storm that forms over warm ocean water near the equator. The warm water evaporates quickly, and that moist, heated air rises fast and starts to spin as Earth turns beneath it. The storm grows a calm center called the eye, ringed by powerful wind and rain. Hurricanes only form where the ocean is warm enough, so they stay over tropical water until they drift toward a coastline.
A tornado is a violent, spinning column of air that drops down from a powerful thunderstorm. It forms over land when warm, humid air crashes into cool, dry air and starts to twist upward. In the United States, this collision happens often in a region nicknamed Tornado Alley, where warm air from the Gulf of Mexico meets cool air from the Rocky Mountains.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina formed over warm Atlantic water, grew stronger for days, and then struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. Storm surge and heavy rain flooded whole neighborhoods, and some communities took years to rebuild. Other extreme weather leaves its own mark: a flood can coat streets in mud, a drought can dry up crops and rivers, and a blizzard can bury roads in snow and cut off power for days.
Hurricanes spin up over warm ocean water, tornadoes spin down from thunderstorms over land, and every kind of extreme weather reshapes the place it hits.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.