Page 248 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Where Do Strong Winds And Storms Stand
In The Context Of Climate Change?

boat sank drowned while another got lost. At the German border, 3 people
were injured and transportation came to a halt in many regions. Many regions
in the country were deprived of electricity due to the severe storm (at least
50,000 homes), in England this figure is thought to be 20,000. (EURONEWS,
2020). It is possible to give similar examples from the US as well.
As seen in the cases, the storm affected nearly the whole European Continent.
Following this disaster, the UK was hit by Storm Dennis (ALJAZEERA, 2020).
Thousands of people left without electricity in the North of England due to
Hurricane Arwen (December 1st -2nd 2021) criticized the government “in
desperation”. According to National Trust, thousands of trees were uprooted
irreversibly by the storm, and the recovery of wild life would cost 3 million
pounds. It has become obvious that as extreme weather conditions get more
widespread, major electricity cuts will become recurring events (INEWS,
2021). The most severe hurricane up to date, Hurricane Eunice blew through
countries like England, the Netherlands, Belgium and France with a speed of
196.33 km/h (122 miles/h) between Feb 14th 2022 and Feb 18th 2022, causing
many people to get injured or die, and plane flights to get cancelled. (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrAc8yMqJU). The number of storms increased
so much that there are competitions held to choose names for storm names
(Express News, 2022).
Disasters interact with each other and expand their area of impact, getting
stronger and affecting public services negatively. The level of development of
a country in terms of losses and damage gains importance only at the recovery
stage. As disasters of different types affect all continents and civilizations, it
is now in international agenda that climate migrations that will cause large
population mobility, which in turn will lead to multifaceted issues. Moreover, it
is anticipated that as disasters increase, countries will express their economic-
political interests in a more threatening manner, which will affect international
relationships negatively.

4. Strong Winds and Severe Storms

The natural disasters that happen due to the strong winds observed
throughout the world and that are defined according to wind speed are
storms, whirlwinds, cyclones (locally called, hurricanes, typhoons), and
tornadoes. Of these disasters, which emerge suddenly and are categorized
as natural disasters with meteorological/atmospheric characteristics, Türkiye
is usually exposed to storms. Depending on the season, these strong winds
also appear as dust / sand / snow storms. As a result of climate change, one of
the biggest threats of our day, there has been an increase in whirlwinds in the

Year 1 / Issue 2 / July 2022 234