Cyclone Movies by Year 9

The Year 9 work on hurricanes gives plenty of scope for independent study and extended work. Presentations such as this by Daniel Turner Gallastegui inform and entertain the whole group. See what you think.

Link to the Project

And now in Brazil!

More than 500 people are now known to have died in floods in south-eastern Brazil, the country's worst natural disaster for several decades.
Heavy rain has led to massive mudslides hitting several towns, resulting in thousands being made homeless.

For the BBC story and other links click here.

Not just Down Under!

Flooding is not just affecting Queensland. Heavy rain in the Philippines and in Sri Lanka are having major effects on the local populations. This will give those of you studying AS level an excellent contrasting case-study.

For a report and other links relating to flooding in Sri Lanka click here.

For a report and other links relating to flooding in the Philippines click here.

And on the home front rapid melting snow and heavy rainfall have brought flood warnings up. For more details click to go to the Environment Agency Flood Warning page

Not such a happy start to the year?

The floods in Queensland, Australia will provide excellent case-study material for year 12.

For basic details click this link.

For an explanation for the flooding click this link.

For some of the consequences click this link.

An interesting start to the year

2010 has already been interesting from a geographical point of view:

Many councils have run out of Rock Salt as the big freeze continues - for more information on the salt used on roads why not click this link.

Dubai has seen the opening of the first building over half a mile high. The Burj Dubai Skyscraper is 2625ft (over 800m tall) and has an observation deck on floor 124.
For more details click on to the Burj Dubai website.

Plans to boost food production in Britain and reduce its impact on the environment have been unveiled.
The government's 20-year food strategy includes making land available for people to grow their own food and more healthy cooking courses. Read more at the BBC.

And we are only five days into it!

Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain!!!!!!

Heavy rain has returned to Cumbria, days after record-breaking rainfall swept away bridges and flooded homes.
Up to 100mm (3.9in) of rain is forecast over high ground and 15 flood warnings remain in place in England and Wales.

Click links:
BBC news
Environment Agency Flood Warnings

Time to evacuate

Residents of the Aberdeenshire village of Pennan are going to have to evacuate their homes while a section of cliff threatening to collapse is repaired. Engineers have been assessing the 25m crack above the village's only access road, after heavy rain.

Read more and watch the clip on this link.

A couple of things to keep you busy.

One in six homes in England is at risk of flooding, says the Environment Agency, and climate change will raise that number without better protection. Read more by clicking this link.

The UK needs to plan now for a future that will be hotter and bring greater extremes of flood and drought, says Environment Secretary Hilary Benn. Read more by clicking this link.

Oh I do like to be beside the sea-side!

As fears grow of a metre sea level rise by the end of the century, the Environment Agency has told Sky News Online it is impossible to defend all of Britain's coastline.

For more detail click this link.

Or go to the home page of the Environment Agency by clicking here.

Flooding project

Produce a presentation that shows two recent flood events from contrasting areas of the world.
Each case study should include:
1) The causes of the flooding
2) The impact of the flooding including maps and data
3) The flood management strategies at the time and that have been introduced since

Where to start researching:
Wikipedia
Environment Agency
Your textbook
This blog

Hailstorm Havoc

Severe flooding, which left a Devon town virtually cut off, was caused by a "freak" overnight hailstorm, the Met Office has said.

Devon and Somerset Fire Service described the situation after 1ft (0.3m) of hail fell in the Ottery St Mary area as "absolute chaos".

Cars in the town were left tightly packed in ice after about 1ft (0.3m) of hail fell in just two hours between 0100 and 0300 GMT.