Wild Weather

Fun fact: Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is actually a storm that has been raging for 300 years
Source: wikipedia.com

 

The weather affects us all, a sunny day could mean a picnic or a visit to the beach and a rainy day could mean cuddling up with a good book from your local library. Then there are times where we get severe weather which can cause natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, icestorms. Severe weather has great impact on the human race; it can ruin crops, destroy homes, cause floods and fires and even take lives.

There is so much information on severe weather available; the trick is finding the specific information you need.

In the Library

Searching the catalogue using the keyword “weather” will get you a lot of good results.

Being more specific in your search is also important; if you particularly want information on tornadoes then type in the keyword “tornado”.  

You could also try:

·         Hurricane

·         Typhoon

·         Natural disasters

·         Climate change

 

Library Website

If you go to the Information desk online webpage on the Library website you will see that you have access to encyclopaedias like Britannica and World Book, both of these resources have much information on severe weather. Try using the keywords mentioned above to get some great results. You might also want to try names of specific disasters, such as “Hurricane Katrina”.

“Tornado alley” is a common name for the area of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent, this search term will also find you some great results. You could also try the term “climate change”

If you then go to the Reference Databases webpage try using the keyword suggestions we have discussed above to search in the Greenfile and the Science Reference Centre databases which will give you some great information. 

 

Online

If you decide Google is the way to go, do be careful because there is a lot of information available on the web for this topic. Make sure that the source of the website is reliable.  You could try any of the keywords above in your search, I would recommend being as specific as possible as more general keywords such as “weather” will bring too many results. You could however try “severe weather” . Again, the more specific you are the better.

You could also try:

·         Australia’s hurricanes

·         Australian natural disasters

·         Cyclone Yasi

·         Tropical cyclones

 

Other websites that you might find useful

AustralianGovernment – Bureau of Meteorlogy

The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia's national weather, climate and water agency. It contains a wealth of information about the history of Australia’s climate and weather as well as up to date information and weather warnings. It is a very valuable online resource.

ExtremeStorms

This website has been put together by two quite knowledgeable and well known Australian storm chasers. It contains some great information, videos and pictures of a variety of storms in Australia.

Australianweather and seasons – a variety of climates

This site is created by the Australian Government and contains information about the Australian climate, weather patterns, severe weather as well as some great reliable links you can check out for more information.

Climate change in Australia

The CSIRO created this website and it has some great information on it, including its very own publications library. This is definitely a site worth checking out.