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Changes in seasonality of extreme storms have important implications for public safety, storm water infrastructure, and, in general, adaptation strategies in a changing climate. While past research on this topic offers some approaches to characterize seasonality, the methods are somewhat limited in their ability to discern the diversity of distributional types for extreme precipitation dates. Herein, we present a comprehensive approach for assessment of temporal changes in the calendar dates for extreme precipitation within a circular statistics framework which entails: (a) three measures to summarize circular random variables (traditional approach), (b) four nonparametric statistical tests, and (c) a new nonparametric circular density method to provide a robust assessment of the nature of probability distribution and changes. Two 30 year blocks (1951-1980 and 1981-2010) of annual maximum daily precipitation from 10 stations across the state of Maine were used for our analysis. Assessment of seasonality based on nonparametric approach indicated nonstationarity; some stations exhibited shifts in significant mode toward Spring season for the recent time period while some other stations exhibited multimodal seasonal pattern for both the time periods. Nonparametric circular density method, used in this study, allows for an adaptive estimation of seasonal density. Despite the limitation of being sensitive to the smoothing parameter, this method can accurately characterize one or more modes of seasonal peaks, as well as pave the way toward assessment of changes in seasonality over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the destabilizing impact of rapid-onset, climate-related disasters. It uses a sample of storms and floods in conjunction with two intensity measures of civil unrest to examine two perspectives on human reactions to disasters (conflictual, cooperative). It also uses insights from the contentious politics literature to understand how emotions posited by the conflictual perspective are transformed into destabilizing acts. While the data show that mean levels of unrest are higher in the wake of disasters, the means poorly reflect the data: the vast majority of episodes do not show higher levels of unrest. Moreover, even when higher levels of unrest emerge, they are not a simple reflection of disaster's human impact; this underscores the importance of the transformational process. Thus, a preliminary model of political violence is investigated; it employs impact, process and institutional variables and it explains three-quarters of the variance in the intensity of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Investigation into possible space weather hazards on cardiovascular system has been performed. A group of 14 healthy volunteers was examined in the spring of 2009 and 2 healthy persons performed electrocardiograph records for a period of 1 year everyday in the morning and in the evening. Results revealed that heart rate variability (HRV) parameters of the group varied strongly from the day before till 3 days after the registered weak storms during the time of investigation. Blood pressure and subjective psychophysiological complaints increased statistically significantly from 0 day till +2nd day. Heart rate (HR) of the group showed a trend for decrease. It was established that morning measurements were more sensitive to space weather variations in comparison with evening measurements. Both persons with prolonged registrations for a period of year did not reveal graded response to geomagnetic storms with different intensities. Both of them decreased HR during moderate storms, but they increased HR during major storms and on the days before and after these storms. HRV parameters varied significantly on these days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 13% of all Atlantic basin tropical cyclone forecasts issued from 1976 to 2000 are for landfalls along the United States coastline, and 2% more are for storms forecast to make landfall in the United States but that remain at sea. Landfall position and time forecasts are skillful at all forecast time periods and are more skillful than Atlantic basin track forecasts as a whole, but within 30 h of predicted landfall, timing errors demonstrate an early bias of 1.5-2.5 h. Landfall forecasts are most accurate for storms moving at oblique or normal angles to the coastline and slow-moving storms. During the last quarter century, after adjustment for forecast difficulty, no statistically significant improvement or degradation is noted for landfall position forecasts. Time of landfall forecasts indicate no degradation at any period and significant improvement for the 19-30-h period. The early bias and lack of improvement are consistent with a conservative or 'least regret' forecast and warning strategy to account for possible storm accelerations. Landfall timing uncertainty is ~11 h at 24 and 36 h, which suggests that hurricane warnings could be disseminated about 12 h earlier (at 36 h, rather than 24 h, before predicted landfall) without substantial loss of lead time accuracy (although warning areas necessarily would be larger). Reconsideration of National Weather Service Strategic Plan and United States Weather Research Program track forecast goals is recommended in light of these results.

Stranded vessels are large, highly visible components of debris associated with catastrophic tsunamis and storms. In many cases, they attain almost iconic status and are memorable evidence of a particular event. Little attention, however, is given to early historically documented accounts of stranded vessels that have been found inland beyond normal shoreline settings. This is unfortunate because often this type of evidence can provide yet another source of information to help researchers interpret the nature and extent of past catastrophic events. An example of stranded vessels found on the West Coast of New Zealand in the 19th century indicates some of the benefits and limitations associated with using early historical accounts. Conflicting evidence about the vessels are apparent but equally, contextual geological and ecological data provide important data to clarify the nature of the stranding event. The New Zealand example indicates that historical documents written by early settlers, particularly in and around the Pacific, provide an invaluable data source to complement more conventional archaeological, geological, and palaeoecological information to interpret past events. In this instance, it is proposed that wrecks found at Ship Creek and Whataroa River were transported inland by a tsunami in ad 1826. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the differences across demographic groups in Houston, Texas and distinguish them with the same data gathered after Hurricane Katrina. The study conducted surveys in 691 area residents in Houston to deal with the investigation. Results show that socioeconomic status did not predict informational demands or preparations for the storm, and tells that differences in the said needs were still discovered across ethnicity and sex.

Urban inundation due to anomalous storms is a serious problem for many cities worldwide. Therefore, it is important to accurately simulate urban hydrological processes and efficiently predict the potential risks of urban floods for the improvement of drainage designs and implementation of emergency actions. However, the complexity of urban landforms and the diversity of hydraulic infrastructure pose particular challenges for the simulation and risk assessment of urban drainage processes. This study developed a methodology to comprehensively simulate inundation processes by dynamically coupling 1D and 2D hydrodynamic models. By allowing the simultaneous solution of the processes of rainfall and runoff, urban drainage, and flooding, this method can be used to estimate the potential inundation risks of any designed drainage system. Furthermore, a Geographical Information System (GIS) based platform was fully integrated with the model engine to effectively illustrate the context of the problem. The developed model was then demonstrated on the Beijing 2008 Olympic Village under the conditions of the 5-year and 50-year design storms. The sewer discharge, channel discharge, and flood propagation (inundation initiation, extent, depths, and duration) were numerically validated and analyzed. The results identified the potential inundation risks. From the study, it is found that the coupled GIS and 1D and 2D hydrodynamic models have the potential to simulate urban inundation processes, and hence efficiently predict flood risks and support cost-effective drainage design and management. It also implies promising prospects about the wide availability of high quality digital data, GIS techniques, and well-developed monitoring infrastructure to develop online urban inundation forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storms occasionally bring havoc to Northwest Europe. At present, a single storm may cause damage of up to 7 billion U.S.$, of which a substantial part is insured. One scenario of climate change indicates that storm intensity in Northwest Europe could increase by 1-9% because of the doubling of CO(sub 2) concentrations in the atmosphere. A geographic-explicit, statistical model, based on recent storms and storm damage data for the Netherlands, shows that an increase of 2% in wind intensity by the year 2015 could lead to a 50% increase in storm damage to houses and businesses. Only 20% of the increase is due to population and economic growth. A 6% increase could even triple the damage. A simpler model - based on national average data and combined with a stochastic storm generator- shows that the average annual damage could increase by 80% with a 2% increase in wind intensity. A 6% wind intensity increase could lead to an average annual damage increase of 500%. The damage in Northwest Europe is about a factor 6 higher than the damage in the Netherlands. Little potential seems to exist for reducing the vulnerability to storms in the Netherlands. More attention should be given to planning at the government level for disaster relief and to the development of coping strategies.

The great Ice Storm of 1998 in Quebec has illustrated the power of the forces of nature over the modern society. The unpredictability and severity of the storm has caused damages to vital infrastructures such as power, transportation and communications. The storm demonstrated the limitation of government capacity and exposed the helplessness of modern urban dwellers to respond to disasters. The crisis showed society's need for solidarity and volunteerism to cope with disasters.

The article focuses on the aspects of storm occurrence and mitigation in Hong Kong, China. Topics discussed include the implication of the several typhoons which strike the region to its population and infrastructure considering the damages reported, the ranking of various storms such as Typhoon Wanda according to the damage assessment and meteorological information, and the region's preparedness on typhoon safety measurements and prediction technology and its storm reach geological location.

The article offers information related to socio-economic loss of Philippines due to the typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines on November 8, 2013. It mentions that the storm affected the economy and infrastructure of Philippines. It reports that the storm has killed more than 6000 people killed and levelled about 1.14 million houses. It also mentions the comments of socio-economic planning secretary of the country Arsenio Balisacan on the raised challenges due to the storm.