3 Dangerous Types of Weather

Weather conditions can be dangerous in different ways. Some strike suddenly and have a dramatic impact on a small area. Others are widespread and negatively affect hundreds of people. Therefore, it can be difficult to say what exactly makes a weather system dangerous or deadly, but one common denominator seems to be the extreme nature of the weather event.

1. Hail

Hail forms when water droplets are caught in an updraft during a thunderstorm and freeze due to lower temperatures at higher elevations. When the frozen droplets become too heavy, they fall to earth. Small hailstones may require hail damage repair Lakewood CO, but large hailstones that reach the size of grapefruits can damage roofs, bring down tree limbs, and kill people. Fortunately, hailstones that large are relatively rare. However, it is not unusual to see hailstones the size of golf balls, which can cause moderately severe damage.

2. Lightning

What makes lightning dangerous is that it is so unpredictable. You never know where it is going to strike, but when it does, it can deliver a jolt of electricity powerful enough to stop the heart. Nevertheless, most deaths from lightning do not occur due to a direct strike, which is relatively rare. More often, the lightning strike ignites a fire, which can spread quickly in urban areas or when conditions are dry.

3. Extreme Heat

Heatwaves occur gradually. Compared to severe storms, they are subtle. They cause damage but not in a way that is acute and dramatic. Nevertheless, more human deaths occur annually from heatwaves than from any other weather event.

Heatwaves can occur anywhere. While Siberia is known for being unforgivingly cold during the winter, it experienced a heatwave in 2010 that killed 56,000 people over the course of 44 days.

What makes them even more dangerous is that there is not an early warning system in place to protect people from extreme heat the way there is for severe storms. As climate change progresses, the risks from extreme heat increase.