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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
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.
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.
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.
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.
