What Is a 1-in-100-year storm?
Articles/Websites
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences, Geography
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Provided by Probable Futures
What it is
- This article from Probable Futures includes interactive maps that allow students to explore data showing that "1-in-100-year" storms are becoming more frequent and even more extreme.
- The article briefly defines the term "1-in-100-year" storms and explains why they are becoming more frequent and more severe.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The article clearly connects the frequency and severity of extreme weather events to climate change.
- The interactive maps allow students to explore the data and see the evidence of the impacts of climate change for themselves.
Prerequisites
- Students should have a basic understanding of climate change.
- This article may bring up strong emotions for students, as they may have been personally affected by an extreme weather event. This resource can help teachers have these conversations with students.
Differentiation & Implementation
- For a middle school science class, this resource could be used as part of a unit on the water cycle.
- For a high school science class, students can use this lesson as part of a unit on how humans impact Earth's systems.
- In a middle school social studies class, students can use these interactive maps to compare how climate change is impacting different parts of the world.
- In a high school social studies class, students can discuss climate migrants after reading this article.
- To expand on why storms are becoming more frequent and more severe, use this resource.
- It is helpful to explore solutions to climate change as part of teaching about the effects of climate change.
From the scientist review
This resource provides commentary on 1 in 100-year storms and provides very nice interactive maps that illustrate the effects of climate change on different areas of the world. The data used in the maps is not cited and cannot be verified. This would still be a useful tool for teaching about the effects of climate change in the classroom.
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