8 HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL RISKS: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The hydro risks are those derived from natural phenomena related to water, which can cause disasters of various types. They are generally closely related to atmospheric processes or extreme weather conditions.

These hydrometeorological hazards are caused by the forces of nature and occur in various forms, such as floods from extreme rainfall, hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Also like droughts, electrical or snow storms, frost, hail and landslides or mud, among others.

Meteorological risks are associated with destructive phenomena, as well as disasters caused by geological, health, and chemical events, among others. However, they are considered throughout history as the most disastrous and frequent dangers.

They can occur anywhere in the world, they only vary in frequency, intensity and vulnerability from one region to another.

Main hydrometeorological risks

Among the most common and disastrous natural events due to hydrometeorological risks are:

Floods

This natural phenomenon occurs when the water level overflows in rivers, lakes, lagoons or the sea. Then the submersion of large areas of land that under normal conditions are dry.

Causes

The causes of flooding are extreme rains produced by tropical storms and hurricanes.

Thaws, unusual tidal rises and tidal waves can also cause flooding. Other times they are caused by humans when deforesting or also obstructing the riverbed with sediment.

Consequences

Risks due to floods range from the loss of human life to the impact of urban infrastructure and agricultural services.

Floods affect homes, roads or railways, water and drainage networks. Bridges, telephone and electricity services, among others, are also affected.

The Hurricanes

They are formed by the accumulation of a group of thunderstorms when they move over warm ocean waters.

Causes

The warm air from the storm combines with that of the ocean surface and rises, generating low pressure on the ocean surface.

As the winds circulate in opposite directions, the storm begins to rotate forming the hurricane. Then, rising warm air causes a decrease in pressure at higher altitudes.

The air continues to rise faster and faster to fill the low pressure space. As it draws in more warm air from the surface of the sea, it draws cooler, drier air downward.

Consequences

Hurricanes can cause loss of human life but, in general, in the areas most susceptible to them, the population is prepared. However, this does not prevent damage to homes and physical infrastructure (buildings, public services, etc.).

Tropical cyclones

They are very powerful natural phenomena with great power of destruction. The tropical cyclone is a rotating system of winds made up of clouds and storms.

Causes

It originates from tropical or subtropical waters and has a closed circulation center located in the lower levels of the atmosphere.

Tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counterclockwise. They are classified into tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane (typhoons in the Pacific Northwest and cyclones in the Indian Ocean) and severe hurricane.

Consequences

The risks of death and material damage caused by tropical cyclones are always present in the areas where they occur the most. The destructive power of these phenomena depends on their intensity.

Snow storms

A storm is an atmospheric phenomenon that can occur in the form of icy wind gusts and heavy snowfall.

Causes

The falling snow is the frozen water that rushes from the clouds.

Consequences

Snow storms impede air and land traffic and are frequently the cause of death of living beings by freezing.

Frost

They are a meteorological phenomenon that is produced by the drastic drop in environmental temperature below the freezing point of water.

Causes

The abrupt drop in temperature causes water or vapor that is contained in the air to freeze and accumulate as ice on the Earth's surface.

Consequences

The greatest risk with frost occurs mostly in agricultural crops, which are destroyed or severely affected.

Electric storms

This is another meteorological phenomenon whose main characteristic is the presence of lightning and thunder.

Causes

Lightning bolts are dangerous electrical discharges that are produced by the collision of positive and negative electrical charges in clouds. As these electrical charges collide, they cause thunder.

Consequences

Electrical storms kill animals and people and destroy trees. For this reason, in urban areas, together with the power lines, lightning rods are installed.

Droughts

It is the effect produced by extreme water deficit.

Causes

This lack of water is generated due to the absence of rain for a long period (months or years).

Consequences

The deficit of rainwater in a place has negative effects on man, plants and animals. In populated areas it can be a factor of death because it generates a lack of food and water for human consumption.

It unleashes diseases and epidemics, causes loss of crops and decimates populations of animals and plants. Droughts are ranked among the greatest dangers to human, animal and plant life.

Hail

They are frozen drops of water that fall from the clouds.

Causes

Hail occurs equally in winter or summer. A solid particle is dragged into the cloud by high-force winds; This particle is joined by other particles of water, which freeze as they continue to rise within the cloud.

Consequences

Although hail rains do not usually cause loss of human life, they are capable of destroying entire crops.

Landslides and mud

Landslides, rockslides, and mud or snow avalanches are very common geological processes.

Causes

These are part of the natural cycle of the land and its erosive process. By action of gravity, the materials slide from the highest to the lowest areas.

However, mudslides or landslides can also be caused by heavy rains for a short period over a given area. The rain erodes the soil, it can even break it generating an avalanche or avalanche.

Consequences

This risk is also of a hydrometeorological type because it is associated with the natural action of water. The people most affected are those in vulnerable areas.

Landslides or avalanches can devastate entire populated areas to burial, as well as devastate agricultural areas, affect roads and destroy drainage systems.

References

1. Hydro-meteorological hazards. Retrieved April 11, 2018 from unesco.org
2. Everything there is to know about hurricanes. Consulted of infobae.com
3. Tropical Cyclones. Consulted of weather.gov
4. Hydro-Meteorological Disasters (PDF). Consulted of nidm.gov.in
5. Droughts Consulted from ifrc.org
6. Risk and uncertainty in hydrometeorological hazards. Consulted from cambridge.org
7. Hydrometeorological Risks. Consulted of onemi.cl
8. Hydrometeorological phenomenon. Consulted of milenio.com