The Storm That Rewrote the Record Books
🌀 The Storm That Rewrote the Record Books
A wall of water 7.5 metres high — taller than a double-decker bus standing on top of another — rolled inland across the city of Tacloban. People had been warned about the wind. Almost nobody had told them what a storm surge would look like. Families climbed into their attics to escape flooding. The surge followed them there. The wind did not kill most of Typhoon Haiyan's 6,300 victims. The sea did.
Within 24 hours, 80% of Tacloban had been destroyed. Over four million people were displaced across the Visayas islands. Economic damage reached $12 billion. Haiyan was not just a meteorological event — it was the product of warm tropical oceans, a vulnerable coastline, poverty-built housing, and a population that had never been told that the sea, not the sky, was the most dangerous part of the storm.
Understanding weather hazards means understanding not just how storms form, but why some storms become catastrophes and others do not. The physics of the atmosphere is only half the story.
Geography glossary
- What is a storm surge?
- A rise in sea level caused by low pressure and strong winds pushing water toward the coast.
- What is a tropical storm?
- An intense rotating storm that forms over warm tropical oceans.
A weather hazard is any atmospheric event that poses a serious risk to people, property, or the environment. Unlike tectonic hazards — which are driven by forces deep inside the Earth — weather hazards are driven by energy in the atmosphere, primarily the uneven heating of the Earth's surface by the Sun.
Earn the mark scheme marks
🧠 STORM — The Formation Mnemonic
Remember the key features of tropical storms with STORM:
Somerset Levels Cause Mnemonic: DRIPS
- D — Dredging not done since early 1990s — river capacity reduced by 20+ years of sediment accumulation
- R — Record rainfall — 200% of average in January 2014; wettest winter in 250 years
- I — Inundation of 17,000 acres; 600+ homes; villages isolated for weeks by road
- P — Policy debate — managed retreat (Environment Agency) vs active dredging (local communities); Somerset Flood Action Plan (£100m) introduced as resolution
- S — Saturated ground from autumn 2013 storms — no infiltration capacity left when winter rains arrived
Primary vs Secondary Effects: Punch vs Slow Burn
- Primary = P for Punch — the storm's direct physical punch: wind damage, surge flooding, rainfall flooding. Happens during the event. Affects everyone equally regardless of wealth.
- Secondary = S for Slow Burn — consequences that develop slowly after the storm passes: disease, displacement, economic disruption, psychological trauma. Shaped heavily by vulnerability — how quickly society can restore water, provide shelter, fund reconstruction.
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 16
What is the minimum ocean surface temperature required for a tropical storm to form?
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This topic in real past papers
Every real exam question we've found on weather hazards, with a full worked answer.
AQA Paper 1
Every sitting we have full papers for includes a 6 mark, three-level judgement question partway through Section A, always instructing students to use the given figure and their own understanding.
AQA Paper 1
Section A regularly tests a short numeracy skill, calculating a percentage, measuring a distance, reading a change, or finding a median directly from real hazard data, at a 1 or 2 mark tariff.