ABSTRACT
Weather and climate fluctuations are producing and will continue to produce major economic, social, and political consequences. One application of unfavourable weather-economic mix has been the increasing demand for improved techniques for measuring the sensitivity of national and international economic activities to weather and climate variations. An important refinement of the weather-economic mix is the ability to use weather/climate information to adjust economic indicators. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning, major floods, droughts, and hail, often result in catastrophic losses of property and income, and on many occasions serious losses of life. A key research area is determining the impact of weather and climate on food and fibre yields; this has led to a variety of attempts to model the physiological responses of plants and animals, and to develop yield equations. Weather and climate variations obviously have economic consequences, but they also affect human activities in many other pervasive ways.
