Weather and Climate Extremes: Changes, Variations and a Perspective from the Insurance Industry / Edition 1

by Thomas R. Karl, Neville Nicholls, Anver Ghazi

Overview

Are extreme weather events becoming more common? How do extreme weather events impact society? These are critical questions that must be examined as we confront the possibility that the world will experience a change in climate over the next century. Much of the research in climatology over the past decade has focused on potential changes in long- term averages of temperature, precipitation and other factors. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that changes in average values will be accompanied by changes in extreme events. Furthermore, extreme weather events will impact society to a greater extent as people around the world continue to locate in more hazard-prone areas such as coastal zones. This book represents a major step forwards in developing a comprehensive set of information about changes in extreme events by providing a review of the problems in data availability, quality and analysis that make deriving a clear picture of world-wide changes in extreme events so difficult.
Audience: The book is intended for policy-makers, professionals, graduate students and others interested in learning how extreme weather events have changed, and how they impact society both now and in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792357117
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	08/31/1999
Edition description:	Reprinted from CLIMATIC CHANGE, 42:1, 1999
Pages:	349
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Overview.- CLIVAR/GCOS/WMO Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes — Workshop Summary.- Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes, Asheville, NC, USA, 3–6 June 1997 — Breakout Group A: Storms.- Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes: Asheville, NC, USA, 3–6 June 1997 — Breakout Group B: Precipitation.- Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes: Asheville, NC, USA, 3–6 June 1997 — Breakout Group C: Temperature Indices for Climate Extremes.- Global Climate Change: Why U.S. Insurers Care.- Interactions between the Atmospheric Sciences and Insurers in the United States.- Damaging Weather Conditions in the United States: A Selection of Data Quality and Monitoring Issues.- Atlantic Basin Hurricanes: Indices of Climatic Changes.- The Use of Indices to Identify Changes in Climatic Extremes.- Progress in the Study of Climatic Extremes in Northern and Central Europe.- Changes in Climate Extremes over the Australian Region and New Zealand during the Twentieth Century.- Changes of Climate Extremes in China.- Indicators of Climate Change for the Russian Federation.- Changes in the Probability of Heavy Precipitation: Important Indicators of Climatic Change.- Long-Term Observations for Monitoring Extremes in the Americas.- Climate Extremes: Selected Review and Future Research Directions.- Conceptual Framework for Changes of Extremes of the Hydrological Cycle with Climate Change.- On Testing for Change in Extreme Events.

Editorial Reviews

Presents the 18 contributions and summaries of group discussions at the June 1997 Workshop on Indices and Indicators for Climate Extremes held in Asheville, North Carolina. They respond to the realization that global warming or other climate extremes, by unbalance biosphere cycles and causing massive public health problems, would almost certainly reduce average values. Thus there might indeed be cause for alarm. The topics include why US insurers care, data quality and monitoring issues of damaging weather conditions in the US, the use of indices to identify changes in climatic extremes, changes in climate extremes over the Australian region and New Zealand during the 20th century, changes in the probability of heavy precipitation, and a conceptual framework for changes of extremes of the hydrological cycle with climate change. The proceedings are also published as vol. 42, no. 1 (1999). They are not indexed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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