This page archived in August 2008
The Teachers’ Guide for the A2 course says that the following things are going to be part of the assessment:
The characteristic weather conditions associated with hurricanes.
This is best illustrated by reference to a named hurricane.
Also need to know about formation and movement: for example the rate of movement....
Using the following sites, answer the following questions: best done as bullet points.
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqA.html - best site overall
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/hurricane/hurricane.htm - another good site on 'Hurricane Alley'
1. Outline the conditions required for a hurricane to form.
2. Outline the effects of a recent hurricane : KATRINA is perhaps the most appropriate one to use..
and pick a Hurricane – track its course on the tracking chart provided. Pick the data closest to midday: one plot for each day. This is a useful exercise to remind you about plotting latitude and longitude.
From the Teachers’ Guide again:
The impact of an urban area on a range of variables should be understood. The dynamic nature of these influences should be appreciated. One located urban area should be studied to provide exemplification e.g. London.
Interesting to note that it was Luke Howard, who also came up with the main classification of cloud types who was one of the first to document the differences in London’s temperature.
Using the following sites, answer the following questions: best done as bullet points - remember that there need to be some good named and located examples to support the aim of a high level of response on the essay part of the exam questions.
http://www.met-office.gov.uk - details on climates and image of London – one of an excellent series of leaflets that you would do well to browse through - go to the home page, click on LEARNING then EDUCATION, and then on the HIGHER factsheets...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island - Wikipedia article (new link)
The MICROCLIMATES factsheet is the one you want: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/higher/index.html
Why not check out the new CASE STUDY PAGES while you're there.....
There was even a conference on Heat Islands held in Canada in May 2002 - I missed it unfortunately, but the results can be seen HERE : some useful links looking at the effects...
1. Outline what is meant by the "heat island effect" (also abbreviated to UHI) - when was the phenomenon first identified ?
2. What evidence is there that London produces a "heat island" ? – quantify the effect that the city has - need to have details of how the temperature and other characteristics vary between the edge of London and the centre of London
3. What other effects do urban areas produce other than an increase in temperature ? - again try to quantify these for a named and located example
4. What effect do urban microclimates have on human activity ? - there's a HEALTH aspect for example
5. How can the negative effects be reduced ? - try HERE first maybe
6. Name other circumstances where a microclimate would occur other than in an urban area.
http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/publications/environment.jsp - a list of useful publications...