Topic: Is The Weather Becoming More Extreme?

In the past several years there have been many cases of extreme weather all over the world. This includes everything from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, snow storms, and droughts. There has always been bad weather ever since the beginning of time, but is it getting worse?

What is known to be the 2008 Super Tuesday Tornado outbreak happened in February 2008. More than 80 tornadoes were confirmed that day, killing almost 60 people. The tornadoes that day were very devastating and they swept through the southern states and went all the way up to the Ohio Valley. This past year in April 2011, hundreds of people were killed due to a huge tornado outbreak in the southern United States. Over 10 states were deeply impacted by this, homes and buildings were destroyed and the damage the tornadoes produced has been very costly. Before then the United States hadn't suffered from tornado outbreak that bad since the year 1925.

Every year winter weather seems to be gradually getting worse over time as well. In the winter of 2010, almost every state was experiencing extremely low temperatures. Freezing rain and snowstorms occurred in low regions including Florida. The temperatures there were the lowest they had been in over twenty years and lasted unusually long, some even lasted up to two weeks.

The past year alone has had horrible outcomes due to flooding. In May a large amount of rain parts of Thailand and left over a hundred dead or missing to this day. A monsoon hit India and ended up killing 574 people in total. Heavy flooding has hit other countries as well this year, some of these including North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Afghanistan; each of these leaving hundreds dead or still missing. In the United States the mid-Atlantic region suffered severe flooding in many areas. It was the worst amount of flooding the U.S had encountered since Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricanes occur every year. Some are worse than others. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina started in the Bahamas and hit the southern coast of the United States, traveling from Florida all the way to Texas. The storm's damage was horrible and it killed thousands. The worst damage was definitely done to New Orleans, Louisiana though. It had the highest death toll overall and the almost everything was completely destroyed. The city still isn't completely rebuilt even though it has been over six years since the deadly storm.

In conclusion, I do agree that storms over the past several years have seemed to worsen. As to whether or not the storms and their severity are going to keep increasing, I still am not completely sure. All anyone can do is hope and be aware and prepared in case one or more of these terrible storms is to come again.

Wikipedia.com/wiki/list_of_extreme_weather_events

Wikipedia.com/wiki/hurricane_katrina