Natural Disasters

Blizzard - An intense winter storm with winds of 35 m.p.h. or higher with falling and/or blowing snow to reduce visibility below 1/4 mile for at least three hours.

Flood - It results from days of heavy rain and/or melting snows, when rivers rise and go over their banks.

Hail - A mixture of liquid and frozen precipitation. Hailstones are composed of layers of ice and can become quite large when strong gusts of upward-moving air keep them inside the cloud. As they move around inside the cloud they collide with raindrops, adding layers and growing before they fall to earth.

Hurricane - They are intense storms with swirling winds up to 150 miles per hour. Usually around 300 miles across, hurricanes are 1,000-5,000 times larger than tornadoes. Hurricanes are known by different names around the world. In Japan they are Typhoons, while Australians call them Willy-Willys.

Ice Storms - They occur when temperatures below a raining cloud are very cold, causing the raindrops to become supercooled (less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit). Freezing rain covers streets, houses, and trees with heavy layers of ice, causing concern for dangerous driving, and damage from the weight of the ice.

Sandstorm - A strong wind which carries sand through the air. Usually occurs in desert regions, often among sand dunes.

Sleet - Solid precipitation in the form of ice pellets form when raindrops, originating in warmer air aloft, freeze as they fall through subfreezing air near the surface of the Earth.

Snow - Precipitation that is composed of white ice crystals that fall from clouds. Snow may stick together to form snowflakes, which have a hexagonal or six-sided shape.

Thunderstorm - A storm produced by a cumulonimbus cloud and always has lightning and thunder. Rain, hail and high winds may or may not occur.

Tornado - It begins as a funnel cloud with spinning columns of air that drop down from a severe thunderstorm. When they reach the ground they become tornadoes. Tornadoes are between 300 and 2,000 feet wide and travel at speeds of 20 to 45 miles per hour. They usually only last a few minutes, but their spinning winds, up to 300 miles per hour, can lift houses into the air and rip trees from the ground.