Glossary

Adaptation: In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate.

Anthropogenic : resulting from the influence of humans being

Attribution : to regard an event as resulting from a specified cause

Disaster: Severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery.

Disaster Risk: The likelihood over a specified time period of severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery.

Disaster Risk Management: Processes for designing, implementing, and evaluating strategies, policies, and measures to improve the understanding of disaster risk, foster disaster risk reduction and transfer, and promote continuous improvement in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery practices, with the explicit purpose of increasing human security, well-being, quality of life, resilience, and sustainable development.

Meteorology : the study of current weather conditions, also focusing on short-term weather forecasting, whereas climatology focuses on the longer-term study of climate and its impact on society. Climate and weather are both used in forecasting models, for both and short-term  predictions. They are interrelated, as changes in one affect the other.

Tropical storm : an intense storm, characterized by extremely low pressure and swirling wind rotation, that usually develops in the tropics. These storms can bring damaging winds and very heavy rain to the areas they pass over. A hurricane is a tropical storm with winds that have reached a constant speed of 74 miles per hour or more.