World weather in 2005

The world weather in 2005 was a year of extremes, [cite web|title=2005-A Year of Extremes |url=http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/a/2005weather.htm |publisher=About.com |accessdate=2007-12-19] particularly in the Atlantic hurricane season. The year was also declared the hottest year on record worldwide at the time, according to records that date back to 1886. [cite web|title=Selected U.S. City and State Extremes |url=http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/extremes/2002/january/januaryext2002.html |publisher=NOAA |accessdate=2007-12-19] The record was beaten in a last-minute temperature rise in 2006, [cite web|title=NOAA REPORTS 2006 WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD |url=http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2772.htm |publisher=NOAA |accessdate=2007-12-19] possibly because of global warming. [cite web|title=The Race for the Title of Warmest Year on Record |url=http://weather.about.com/od/climatechange/a/HottestYears.htm |publisher=About.com |accessdate=2007-12-18] The year was also declared the costliest for extreme weather. [cite web|title= 2005 Costliest Year for Extreme Weather |url=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1207-02.htm |publisher=CommonDreams.org News Center |accessdate=2007-12-19]

Hurricane Katrina had caused thousands of deaths and over one billion dollars in damage, thus making it the costliest storm in the history of the United States. There were also events of smaller scale across the world. There were two airplane crashes that were weather-related. There were a total of 82 storms across the world that were rated as tropical depressions or higher.

Important events

North America

The Atlantic basin hurricane season in 2005 was the busiest on record, with a total of twenty-eight storms. The season began with Tropical Storm Arlene and ended with Tropical Storm Zeta, which carried the hurricane season over to the year of 2006. The season exhausted all of the storm names already set, so the names after V were from the Greek alphabet (i.e. Tropical Storm Alpha was the first storm in the Greek names). This was the first year for this process to be used.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a category five hurricane, and was named the costliest and the second deadliest hurricane in the history of the United States. [cite news|authorlink= |coauthors= |title=US Hurricane Katrina |url=http://www.ceca-raznatovic.com/public_html/hurricanekatrina.htm |work= |publisher=US News |date= |accessdate=2007-12-16 ] Katrina formed over the Bahamas as Tropical Depression Twelve and continued across Florida as a category one hurricane, causing few deaths and flooding. The hurricane then entered the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened fiercely and rapidly, becoming one of the strongest hurricanes in history. The hurricane weakened immediately before making two landfalls in southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi/Louisiana state border. The hurricane made landfall at category three status.

After Katrina, there were three other category five hurricanes: Wilma, [cite news|title=Tropical Storm Wilma Reaches Category 5 Status |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-114310774.html |publisher= HighBeam Research |accessdate=2007-12-16] Rita, [cite news|title=Hurricane Rita Reaches Category 5 Strength, Bears Down On US Gulf Coast |url=http://www.voanews.com/lao/archive/2005-09/2005-09-22-voa2.cfm |publisher= Voice of America News|] and Emily. [cite news|title=Hurricane Emily: Day-by-day recap |url=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/storm/2005/atlantic/emily/news.html |publisher=Palm Beach Post |accessdate=2007-12-16] Hurricane Emily did not make landfall in the United States. Thus, a record three category five hurricanes made landfall in the United States in the 2005 season.

Asia

In Asia, 2005 was fairly calm in the field of weather. The only truly major developments in the area were the hurricanes of this year's season.

Pacific basin hurricane season

The Pacific hurricane season had remarkably less storms than the Atlantic season with only seventeen storms, starting with Hurricane Adrian and ending with Hurricane Otis. Out of these seventeen storms, fifteen were named, twelve were hurricanes, three were tropical storms, two were tropical depressions, and no hurricanes were category three or higher. The season started on May 15, 2005 [cite web|title=Climate of 2005 East Pacific Hurricane Season |url=http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2005/pachurricanes05.html#may |accessdate=2007-12-16] and June 1, 2005 for the central Pacific, and ended on November 30, 2005. The named storms, in order, were Adrian, Beatriz, Calvin, Dora, Eugene, Fernanda, Greg, Hilary, Irwin, Jova, Kenneth, Lidia, Max, Norma, and Otis.

Africa

Africa had a somewhat calm year. There were a few tropical developments, however, the continent's eastern region and surrounding ocean is often the birthplace of many Atlantic Ocean storms. [cite web|title=Birthplace of hurricanes heating up |url=http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0503-noaa.html |publisher=Mongabay.com |accessdate=2007-12-19]

outh-West Indian Ocean cyclone season

The 2005 cyclone season was very calm, with ten storms. Only five of the names were used in the season. The season started on November 15, 2005 and ended on April 30, 2006. The strongest storm was Intense Tropical Cyclone Carina, which was a category four storm. The storm formed on February 22, and dissipated on March 11, 2005. The named storms, in order, were Alvin, Boloetse, Carina, Diwa, and Elia.

Europe

Europe was also fairly calm in 2005. Since the continent often has rainy weather, flooding had become a problem at some times when there were extremely large amounts of rainwater.cite web|title=Europe Climate - Historic Averages |url=http://goeurope.about.com/od/historicclimate/Europe_Climate_Historic_Averages.htm |publisher= About.com |accessdate=2007-12-19] Thus, there were no major events in the year of 2005. Also, due to the colder weather often found in the continent, occasionally rain turned into winter weather, sometimes causing deaths, damage to property, and power outages.

Oceania

Oceania, finally, also had an unusually quiet year. The only major problems were flooding and cyclones that made landfall on some of the continent's countries. Since many of the countries are small (excluding Australia), flooding had become a problem when cyclones hit.

2004–05 cyclone season

The 2004–2005 cyclone season contained at total of ten storms, four of which were considered severe tropical cyclones. The first storm formed on August 31, 2003, and the final storm dissipated on April 5, 2004. The strongest storm was Severe Tropical Cyclone Ingrid, which lasted from March 5 to March 19, 2004. [cite web|title=Australia Braces for Cyclone Ingrid |url=http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1793.html |publisher=Imaginative Worlds |accessdate=2007-12-19] The storm was a category four cyclone.

2005–06 cyclone season

The 2005–2006 cyclone season was slightly busier than the previous year, with a category five storm. The season began in November 1, 2005, and ended on April 30, 2006. The strongest storm was a category five cyclone, and its name was Glenda. [cite web|title=Cyclone Glenda (Australia), March 2006 |url=http://earth.esa.int/ew/cyclones/Cyclone_Glenda-mar06/ |publisher=ESA |accessdate=2007-12-19] The storm lasted from March 23 to March 31, 2006.

Weather-related incidents

Air France Flight 358

Air France Flight 358 departed Paris, France, without incident on August 3, 2005, scheduled to land at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. En route, the plane was forced to make a crash landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. All 297 passengers and 12 crew members survived the crash, with 43 injuries. [cite news|title=All survive Air France jet crash and fire |url=http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/02/toronto.crash/ |work= |publisher=CNN |date=August 3, 2005 |accessdate=2007-12-20] The crash was caused by a runway overrun.

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 departed Panama City, Panama, destined for Fort de France, Martinique. The pilots reported trouble with one of the engines, and several minutes later, they reported trouble with the other engine. The pilots then sent a distress call at approximately 6:59 UTC, and the plane crashed 46 minutes later, with a 7,000 feet per minute drop. All 160 people on the plane, 152 passengers and 8 crew members, died. [cite news |first=Brian |last=Ellsworth |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Airline Crash in Venezuela Kills 160 |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4802464 |work= |publisher=NPR |date=August 16, 2005 |accessdate=2007-12-20]

References