ABSTRACT
Extreme weather events and the weather-related events they may induce, such as landslides, floods and storm surges, form an important part of what have been termed ‘natural hazards’. They have a major influence not only on the physical landscapes and human societies directly affected by them but also on the wider community through their impact on the insurance industry and the costs of emergency aid or relief. It is increasingly being recognised that their distribution in time and space is dynamic rather than static and significant changes in the frequency of extremes such as heavy daily rainfalls, droughts, extreme heat and cold and tropical cyclones are envisaged in ‘global warming’ predictions for the next century (IPCC 1996; United Kingdom Climate Change Impacts Review Group 1996; Hulme and Viner 1998). This chapter reviews the roles that geographers have played in examining the climatology of extreme events, their spatial and temporal distribution (including past, current and future changes), their impacts on natural systems and human activities, and the design and effectiveness of strategies aimed at reducing their adverse effects. With particular reference to geographical research on tropical cyclones, it highlights the problems that stem from their inherent rarity, which reduces the sample size upon which to base conclusions and advice, the mismatch between the spatial scale at which one can offer reliable advice and the spatial scale most useful for planning purposes, and the implications and uncertainties associated with recent and predicted future changes in extreme event frequency.
