Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyWeather, climate and a warming world25 min★★★ difficulty

Extreme weather: tropical storms and UK flooding

The same physics that gives a rainforest its afternoon downpour, on a much bigger scale and with a spin, becomes a tropical storm 500 km across.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Human and physical geography: Understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time
  • Human and physical geography: Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present
  • Geographical skills and fieldwork: Use fieldwork in contrasting locations to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Explain the formation, effects and management of extreme weather events.

Key learning points

  • • How a tropical storm forms
  • • Effects and why they vary
  • • UK flooding
  • • Managing the risk

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 17 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

formationeffectsmanagementextremeweather

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 17 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 17

Watch first

Extreme weather: tropical storms and UK flooding

An English teaching video on this topic from iNewittAll. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Explain the formation, effects and management of extreme weather events.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 17

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · How a tropical storm forms

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 17

Learn

How a tropical storm forms

Four conditions are needed: sea-surface temperature above about 27 degrees Celsius to depths of 60-70 metres, a latitude of at least 5 degrees from the equator so the Coriolis effect can start rotation, low wind shear so the storm is not torn apart, and converging air at the surface. Warm water evaporates, rises, condenses and releases latent heat, which powers further rising. Air spirals inwards, sinking air in the centre creates the calm eye, and the eyewall holds the most violent winds and rain.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 17

Learn

Effects and why they vary

Primary effects include wind damage, coastal flooding from the storm surge and drowning. Secondary effects include contaminated water, disease, lost crops and long-term unemployment. Preparedness changes everything: satellite tracking, evacuation orders, cyclone shelters and building standards have cut deaths sharply in countries such as Bangladesh even though the storms have not weakened.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 17

Quick check

Which condition is essential for a tropical storm?

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Quick check

Part 6 of 17

Quick check

The eye of a storm is calm because

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Learning cycle

Part 7 of 17

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · UK flooding

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

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Reset break

Part 8 of 17

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 17

Learn

UK flooding

Most UK floods are caused by prolonged rainfall on already saturated ground, intense summer convectional storms, or snowmelt. Human factors make it worse: urban impermeable surfaces and drains deliver water to rivers fast, deforestation removes interception, and building on floodplains puts property in harm's way. On a hydrograph these shorten lag time and raise peak discharge.

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Explore the idea

Part 10 of 17

Learn

Managing the risk

Hard engineering, such as embankments, flood walls and barriers, protects high value areas but is expensive and can shift the problem downstream. Soft strategies, such as floodplain zoning, tree planting, restoring meanders and washland storage, work with the river, cost less and improve habitats, but they need land and cannot protect a dense city centre alone. Most UK schemes now combine both.

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Quick check

Part 11 of 17

Quick check

Which human action shortens flood lag time?

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Quick check

Part 12 of 17

Quick check

A strength of soft engineering is that it

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Explore the idea

Part 13 of 17

Worked example

Worked answer: explain why the number of deaths in tropical storms has fallen even where damage costs have risen (6 marks)

Satellite monitoring and computer track forecasting now give several days of warning, so authorities can order evacuation before landfall (2). Investment in cyclone shelters, raised roads and radio and mobile warning systems means more people can actually reach safety, which is what turns a warning into a saved life (2). Damage costs still rise because more expensive property has been built in coastal areas, so the same storm destroys more valuable assets even though fewer people die (2).

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 17

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 17

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Primary ____ include wind damage, coastal flooding from the storm surge and drowning.

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Mastery quiz

Part 16 of 17

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Extreme weather: tropical storms and UK flooding

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which piece of evidence best supports the claim that recent warming is human-caused?

  2. 2. Which condition is essential for a tropical storm?

  3. 3. The eye of a storm is calm because

  4. 4. Which human action shortens flood lag time?

17

Lesson round-up

Part 17 of 17

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present

  • Not looked at yet

    Use fieldwork in contrasting locations to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data

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