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Hurricane Season The deadliest, strongest, and costliest Atlantic storms Quizzes and Crosswords Extreme Weather Disasters Quiz Great Disasters Quiz Weather Disasters Crossword Hurricane Season 2013—Predictions According to Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), an above-average hurricane season is predicted for 2013. TSR predicts the Atlantic basin will see 15.4 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), including 7.7 hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), and 3.4 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher) in 2013. Hurricane Season 2012—Review The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ended November 30, tied 2011, 2010, 1995, and 1887 for the third most active season in recorded history. In 2012, there were 10 hurricanes, 2 major hurricanes, 19 tropical storms, and 19 tropical cyclones. Total damage was estimated at $76.8 billion and 322 people were killed. Most of the damage was done by the two major hurricanes, Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Isaac. Hurricane Season 2011—Review The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ended November 30, tied 2010, 1995, and 1887 for the third highest number of tropical storms with 20, including seven hurricanes, four of them major hurricanes. Hurricanes: Irene, Katia, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina Tropical storms: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Jose, Lee, Sean, tropical depression Ten, unnamed tropical storm. Hurricane Season 2010—Review The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ended November 30, produced the third largest number of named storms, with 20, and the second largest number of hurricanes, with 12. This places 2010 as the tenth most active season since 1950. Hurricanes: Alex, Danielle, Earl, Igor, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas. Tropical storms: Bonnie, Colin, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Matthew, Nicole. Hurricane Season 2009—Review The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ended November 30, produced fewer, shorter-lived, and generally weaker named storms than in years past. There were nine named storms, three of which became hurricanes and two became major hurricanes. An average season sees 11 named storms, with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes. The named storms were: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, and Ida.

Tornadoes Facts and figures about twisters Tornado Index Average number of tornadoes per year (1950–2010):1,253 Top 5 states with highest incidence of tornadoes:Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida, Nebraska States with lowest incidence of tornadoes):Alaska, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Vermont, Oregon Most tornadoes in one day:316 (April 2011) Most tornadoes in one month:543 (May 2003) Most tornado deaths in one year:550 (2011) Fewest tornado deaths in one year:15 (1986) Source: Storm Prediction Centerat the National Weather Service Although tornadoescan happen at any time of year, they are especially common during the spring and early summer. May and June are the peak months in terms of numbers of tornadoes, but April appears to be the deadliest month. Two of the all-time worst tornado disasters occurred in April. On April 3-4, 1974, 148 twisters struck 13 states, causing more than 300 deaths, and on April 27, 2011, 137 reported tornadoes swept through the south, killing nearly 300 people in six states. Most of the fatalities occurred in Alabama. May holds the record for experiencing the most tornadoes. In May 2003, there were 543 recorded tornadoes. On average, 60 people die each year as a result of tornadoes, mostly from flying and falling debris. What Is a Tornado? A tornado is a dark funnel-shaped cloud made up of violently rotating winds that can reach speeds of up to 300 m.p.h. The diameter of a tornado can vary between a few feet and a mile, and its track can extend from less than a mile to several hundred miles. Tornadoes generally travel in a northeast direction (depending on the prevailing winds) at speeds ranging from 20-60 m.p.h. What Causes a Tornado? Tornadoes are most often spawned by giant thunderstorms known as "supercells." These powerful, highly organized storms form when warm, moist air along the ground rushes upward, meeting cooler, drier air. As the rising warm air cools, the moisture it carries condenses, forming a massive thundercloud, sometimes growing to as much as 50,000 ft. in height. Variable winds at different levels of the atmosphere feed the updraft and cause the formation of the tornado's characteristic funnel shape. Did you know? April is the deadliest month for tornadoes [ more] Where Do Tornadoes Occur? The conditions that lead to the formation of tornadoes are most often met in the central and southern U.S., where warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with cool, dry air from the Rockies and Canada. This area, dubbed "tornado alley," extends roughly from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, and from Iowa and Nebraska to the Gulf of Mexico. Tornadoes can also occur elsewhere, though, including all U.S. states, Europe, Asia, and Australia. What Kind of Destruction Do Tornadoes Cause? The Fujitascale classifies tornadoes according to the damage they cause. Almost half of all tornadoes fall into the F1 or "moderate damage" category. These tornadoes reach speeds of 73-112 m.p.h. and can overturn automobiles and mobile homes, rip off the roofs of houses, and uproot trees. Only about 1 percent of tornadoes are classified as F5, causing "incredible damage." With wind speeds in excess of 261 m.p.h., these tornadoes are capable of lifting houses off their foundations and hurling them considerable distances.

Lightning Zeus, park rangers, and the probability of being struck by lightning Here are a few things to bear in mind if you don't want to become a victim of a "fiery flaming thunderbolt," as Homercalled Zeus's favorite weapon: Avoid Florida, Texas, and North Carolina—the states with the greatest number of lightning deaths. Especially avoid these states in June (the worst month for lightning), followed by August, July, April, and September. open spaces, fields, and ballparks(location of 28% of deaths and 29% of lightning injuries) standing under trees (18% of deaths and 13% of injuries) boating, fishing, and other water-related activities (13% of deaths and 6% of injuries) golfcourses, tractors or heavy road equipment, and telephone booths airplanes are also a bad idea—the deadliest lightning strike ever was of a Boeing 707 near Elkton, Maryland, on Dec. 8, 1963. The plane then crashed, killing 81 people. Zeus, the Greek king of the gods, punished wayward mortals and miscreant gods by hurling thunderbolts at them. Sky deities from many world religions, including Zeus's Roman counterpart Jupiter, the Germanic Thor, the MayanChac, and the SlavicPerun, all used the thunderbolt as the paramount symbol of power. Whether deserving the wrath of the gods or not, chances are slim that you'll meet your end from a bolt of lightning. Lightning causes only an average of 57 deaths and 300 injuries in the United States each year. The National Weather Service publicationStorm Datarecorded a total of 9,207 deaths—the most of all the severe weather categories—between 1940 and 2011. In 2012, there were 28 lightning fatalities in the U.S. Dead Ringers Whatever your strategy for avoiding lightning, be sure to stay clear of church bells. During the Middle Ages, their ringing was believed to diffuse lightning, and many medieval bells were engraved withFulgura frango("I break up the lightning"). This suspect theory was discredited by a medieval scholar who observed that over a 33-year period, there were 386 lightning strikes on church towers and 103 fatalities among bell ringers. Shocking Humor Should you live to tell the tale of being struck by lightning, you can join the Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International, Inc. (LSESSI), a non-profit support group for such survivors. With its motto, "Join us if it strikes you," and newsletter,Hit or Miss, the group emphasizes the necessity of a sense of humor in overcoming trauma. One LSESSI member has been victimized both indoors and outdoors. The record holder, however, is Roy C. Sullivan, an ex-park ranger who survived seven different lightning strikes. According to theGuinness Book of Records, Sullivan was first hit by lightning in 1942, which caused him to lose his big toenail. Over the next 35 years, lightning burned off Sullivan's eyebrows, seared his left shoulders, set his hair on fire, struck his legs, injured his ankle, and burned his stomach and chest. Safe Spots The safest place to be during a thunderstorm is in a building, preferably one with a lightning rod. The rod offers protection by intercepting lightning—an electrical charge—and transmitting its current into the ground. Made out of metal so that it conducts the charge, it is usually located as high as possible because of lightning's tendency to strike the nearest object to it. (And yes, Benjamin Franklindid invent the lightning rod, as well as prove that lightning was actually electricity through his flying-a-kite-during-a-thunderstorm experiment.) The other safe place is a car with the windows rolled up, as long as you don't touch any of the metal parts. If lightning strikes, the car's metal body will conduct the charge down to the ground—contrary to popular belief, the rubber of the wheels offers no protection.

Major Terrorist Acts Suspected of or Inspired by al-Qaeda (part 3 & last part): *.2010 (Oct.):Two packages are found on separate cargo planes. Each package contains a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 grams (11-14 oz) of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism. The bombs are discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's security chief. The packages, bound from Yemen to the United States, are discovered at en route stop-overs, one in England and one in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. A week after the packages are found, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) takes responsibility for the plot. *.2011 (Jan.):Two Frenchmen are killed in Niger. France highly suspects the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). *.2011 (Jan.):Four suicide bombings occur in Iraq between January 18-20. At least 137 people are killed and 230 are injured. Al-Qaeda is suspected in all four bombings. *.2011 (April):Men claiming to be Moroccan members of AQIM appear on the internet and threaten to attack Moroccan interests. The following week a bomb killing 15 people, including 10 foreigners, explodes in Marrakesh, Morocco. *.2012 (Summer):Over the summer of 2012, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine, another radical Islamist group, take advantage of the instability and an increasingly weak military in Mali and capture Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao, cities in the north. They implement and brutally enforce Shariah, or Islamic law. They also destroy many ancient books and manuscripts and vandalized tombs, saying that worshipping saints violates the tenets of Islam. The Islamists continue to stretch their area of control into the fall, prompting concern that legions of Islamists will gather and train in northern Mali and threaten large swaths of Africa. ECOWAS begins planning a military action to reclaim the north from the Islamists. *.2012 (Sept.):Militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades fire upon the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other embassy officials. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says the U.S. believes that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group closely linked to al-Qaeda, orchestrated the attack. *.2013 (Jan.):Militants push into the southern part of Mali, crossing into the area controlled by the government. France sends about 2,150 troops to Mali to push them back. By the end of January, French troops push the militants out of Gao and Timbuktu, forcing them back to northern Mali. Soldiers from other African nations are also deployed to Mali to aid in the effort and will take a more active role in both combat and training Malian troops once France withdraws from Mali. *.2013 (Jan. 16):Islamic militants enter neighboring Algeria from Mali and take dozens of foreign hostages at the BP-controlled In Amenas gas field. Algerian officials say the militants are members of an offshoot of al-Qaeda called Al Mulathameen and are acting in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali. On Jan. 17, Algerian troops storm the complex and attack the kidnappers. By the end of the standoff on Jan. 20, 29 militants and 37 hostages are killed. Three Americans are among the dead. *.2013 (April 15):Multiple bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Two bombs go off around 2:50 in the afternoon as runners finish the race. Three people are killed and more than 170 people are injured. Three days later, the FBI releases photos and video of two suspects in the hope that the public can help identify them. Just hours after the FBI releases the images, the two suspects rob a gas station in Central Square then shoot and kill a MIT police officer in his car. Afterwards, the two men carjack a SUV and tell the driver that they had set off the explosions at the marathon. Police pursue the vehicle into Watertown. During the shootout, a MBTA officer is shot and one of the suspects, identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, age 26, is killed. A suicide vest is found on his body. The other suspect, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, age 19, remains at large for several hours, causing a massive manhunt and lockdown for all of Boston, Cambridge, and many other surrounding communities. The manhunt ends the next evening, on April 19, when he is found alive, but seriously injured, hiding in a boat behind a house in Watertown. The two suspects are brothers and had been living together on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. They have lived in the U.S. for about a decade, but are from an area near Chechnya, a region in Russia. While the ongoing investigation so far has shown that the two suspects were not acting with any known terrorist group, evidence suggests they may have learned how to build the bombs online from an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Yemen.

Major Terrorist Acts Suspected of or Inspired by al-Qaeda (part 2): *.2008 (Jan.):In the worst attack in Iraq in months, a suicide bomber kills 30 people at a home where mourners were paying their respects to the family of a man killed in a car bomb. The Iraqi military blames the attack on al-Qaeda in Iraq. *.2008 (Feb.):Nearly 100 people die when two women suicide bombers, who are believed to be mentally impaired, attack crowded pet markets in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. military says al-Qaeda in Iraq has been recruiting female patients at psychiatric hospitals to become suicide bombers. *.2008 (April):A suicide bomber attacks the funeral for two nephews of a prominent Sunni tribal leader, Sheik Kareem Kamil al-Azawi, killing 30 people in Iraq's Diyala Province. *.2008 (April):A suicide car bomber kills 40 people in Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province in Iraq. *.2008 (April):Thirty-five people die and 62 are injured when a woman detonates explosives that she was carrying under her dress in a busy shopping district in Iraq’s Diyala Province. *.2008 (May):At least 12 worshipers are killed and 44 more injured when a bomb explodes in the Bin Salman mosque near Sana, Yemen. *.2008 (May):An al-Qaeda suicide bomber detonates explosives in Hit, a city in the Anbar Province of Iraq, killing six policemen and four civilians, and injuring 12 other people. *.2008 (June):A car bomb explodes outside the Danish Embassy in Pakistan, killing six people and injuring dozens. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for the 2006 publication of political cartoons in the Danish newspaperJyllands-Postenthat depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad. *.2008 (June):A female suicide bomber kills 15 and wounds 40 others, including seven Iraqi policemen, near a courthouse in Baquba, Iraq. *.2008 (June):A suicide bomber kills at least 20 people at a meeting between sheiks and Americans in Karmah, a town west of Baghdad. *.2008 (Aug.):About two dozens worshippers are killed in three separate attacks as they make their way toward Karbala to celebrate the birthday of 9th-century imam Muhammad al-Mahdi. Iraqi officials blame al-Qaeda in Iraq for the attacks. *.2008 (Aug.):A bomb left on the street explodes and tears through a bus carrying Lebanese troops, killing 15 people, nine of them soldiers. No one claims responsibility for the attack, but in 2007, the army fought an al-Qaeda linked Islamist group in Tripoli. *.2008 (Aug.):At least 43 people are killed when a suicide bomber drives an explosives-laden car into a police academy in Issers, a town in northern Algeria. *.2008 (Aug.):Two car bombs explode at a military command and a hotel in Bouira, killing a dozen people. No group takes responsibility for either attack, Algerian officials said they suspect al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is behind the bombings. *.2008 (Sept.):In its first acknowledged ground attack inside Pakistan, U.S. commandos raid a village that is home to al-Qaeda militants in the tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. The number of casualties is unclear. *.2008 (Sept.):A car bomb and a rocket strike the U.S. embassy in Yemen as staff arrived to work, killing 16 people, including 4 civilians. At least 25 suspected al-Qaeda militants are arrested for the attack. *.2008 (Nov.):at least 28 people die and over 60 more are injured when three bombs explode minutes apart in Baghdad, Iraq. Officials suspect the explosions are linked to al-Qaeda. *.2009 (April):on April 6 in Baghdad, a series of six attacks kills 36 people and injure more than 100 in Shiite neighborhoods; April 23: at least 80 people are killed in three separate suicide bombings in Baghdad. This is the largest single-day death toll due to attacks since February 2008. One of the bombings is reportedly set off by a female, who was standing among a group of women and children receiving food aid. *.2009 (Dec.):A Nigerian man on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit attempted to ignite an explosive device hidden in his underwear. The explosive device that failed to detonate was a mixture of powder and liquid that did not alert security personnel in the airport. The alleged bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, told officials later that he was directed by the terrorist group al-Qaeda. The suspect was already on the government's watch list when he attempted the bombing; his father, a respected Nigerian banker, had told the U.S. government that he was worried about his son's increased extremism. *.2009 (Dec.):A suicide bomber kills eight Americans civilians, seven of them CIA agents, at a base in Afghanistan. It's the deadliest attack on the agency since 9/11. The attacker is reportedly a double agent from Jordan who was acting on behalf of al-Qaeda.