Severe weather

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological or hydro-meteorological phenomena, of varying duration, with risk of causing major damage, serious social disruption and loss of human life. While types of severe weather phenomena can vary depending on the latitude, atitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions of a region, general forms of severe weather include: thunderstorms, hurricanes, hailstorms, tornadoes, heavy precipitation, and damaging downburst winds. More localized severe weather phenomena are characterized by blizzards, snowstorms, ice storms, and duststorms that can only occur at certain regions. Extreme temperature variations caused by heat waves and cold waves can also be considered forms of severe weather. The term severe weather is generally used to describe significant weather occurrences which develop during strong to severe thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, or extratropical cyclones.