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New Key Geography for GCSE Links - Chapter 7 - World climates

What are the world’s main climates? - pages 88 and 89

worldclimate.com
http://worldclimate.com/index.htm
WorldClimate.com contains over 85,000 records of world climate data (historical weather averages) from a wide range of sources. WorldClimate.com gathers in one place a world-wide range of climate data in an easy-to-use form. The climate data provides historical weather averages, showing what the weather was typically like each month, averaged over a range of years. Data is provided on temperature (various measures), rainfall and pressure. WorldClimate.com is designed for a general audience, for schools, families, travellers and others interested in the general historical weather patterns around their area and around the world. So far, around 85,000 climate records are online for tens of thousands of places around the world.


What are the effects of drought? - pages 98 and 99

NOAA’s Drought Information Center
http://www.drought.noaa.gov/
This site provides a wide range of information about the causes and effects of drought orientated towards the USA.


What are tropical storms (hurricanes)? - pages 100 and 101

University of Illinois, Online guide to Meteorology WW2010 http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/home.rxml
The Online Meteorology Guide is a collection of web-based instructional modules. These resources incorporate text, colourful diagrams, animations, computer simulations, audio and video to introduce fundamental concepts of meteorology.

The purpose of this module is to introduce hurricanes and their associated features, where they develop and under what conditions. The Hurricane module has been organised into the following sections:

  • Definition and Growth - Defines a hurricane and explains where and how they develop.
  • Stages of Development - The different stages of development from depression to hurricane.
  • Structure of a hurricane - Discusses the structure of different parts of a hurricane.
  • Movement - The influence of global winds on the movement of hurricanes.
  • Satellites and Hurricane Hunters - Discusses the tools and means meteorologists use to observe and track hurricanes.
  • Preparations - Includes a list of matters to consider if you are threatened by a hurricane.
  • Damage and Destruction - Destructive features associated with hurricanes, plus the Saffir-Simpson Scale for classifying damage potential.
  • Hurricane Tracks - Track Atlantic Hurricanes interactively from 1950 to 1994.
  • How They Are Named - The different names given to hurricane-like storms in different parts of the world.
  • Global Activity - Discusses the regions of the Earth where tropical cyclones can be found.
  • El Niño - See how El Niño appears to affect hurricane activity.


Finding out about hurricanes using the internet - Activity sheet 7.5

Visit the USA National Hurricane Centre
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Investigate this website and find out the following:

a) Who has developed this website and where is the organisation located?
b) What is the purpose of this website.
c) Click on the news link to find out about the latest weather stories.
d) Investigate the guidance provided for people about how to cope with hurricanes.
Imagine that the USA National Hurricane centre have asked you to produce a 6 panel leaflet about how to cope in a hurricane. Use the resources from the website to produce a leaflet using desk top publishing software.


Online decision making activity
Weather Eye
http://weathereye.kgan.com/expert/hurricane/index.html
This USA site provides an interactive decision-making exercise for you to attempt. You take on the role of mayor of the city of Pensacola Beach, Florida. Hurricane Opal is developing/approaching in the Gulf of Mexico. You must decide whether or not to order a forced evacuation of the city.

What are the effects of tropical storms? - pages 102 and 103

NOAA Report
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1992andrew.html
This is a link to a NOAA report on the Hurricane Andrew from the USA National Hurricane centre. The site includes an extensive collection of satellite images of the passage of the hurricane.
These are initially presented as thumbnails, but full versions can be downloaded. A link is also provided to a collection of photographs showing the damage done by the storm. These can also be downloaded in full. A detailed report is provided with diagrams and a hypertext-linked glossary of terms. At the end of the report there is an extensive collection of statistical information ranging from weather data about the storm to costings for the damage done and a death toll state by state.

FEMA information about how to prepare for a hurricane
http://www.fema.gov/hazards/hurricanes/
This is the USA Federal Emergency Management Agency, who help people cope with a wide range of natural disasters.


What are the causes and effects of global warming? - pages 104 and 105

Global warming websites
BBC News In depth report about Global Warming 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/climate_change/default.stm
This excellent resource pulls together collections of news articles and internet links about this world issue.

UK government Global warming education site
http://www2.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/schools/12-16/index.htm

WWF Climate Change campaign
http://www.panda.org/climate/

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Global Warming - Frequently Asked Questions
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

Greenpeace Climate Change campaign
http://www.greenpeace.org/campaigns/intro?campaign_id=3937

US Environment Protection Agency Global Warming website
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/

Global warming heat map
http://www.climatehotmap.org/

US Environment Protection Agency Global Warming kids website
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids/

Global warming information page
http://www.globalwarming.org/

Yahoo news provides a global warming category which co-ordinates all the latest news stories from around the world about the topic.
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=world&cat=global_warming

Guardian Unlimited special report on Global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalwarming/0,7368,395145,00.html




Chapters:

7

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