1 in 100 year floods every 5 years?

Thinking about the increasing frequency of 'rare' climate events, there was a good explanation of what '1 in 100 year' event actually means. 

This Christmas the people in Cockermouth are clearing up after the 1 in 100 year flood caused by Desmond with a very bitter taste in their mouth. They were told that the last flood was a 1 in 100 year event ... And that was in 2009.

'More or Less' is a great little radio programme on the World Service that tries to explain colloquial expressions and news stories that involve numbers. In this episode they explain 1 in 100 year floods well.

Click Here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0396yn5#play

The Desmond Effect: Malham Cove

The huge volume of rain brought by Storm Desmond caused water to fall over Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales for the first time in living memory. 

Read the story by following the link below and then have a little think about whether or not the recent agreement on climate change in Paris, although an amazing achievement, is just a bit too little too late. These 'once-in-a-lifetime' weather events are happening more and more often.

Thank you to Peter Price at Charterhouse for bringing the story to my attention.

Read the story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-35026529

Y7&8: CE Global Location I

The British Isles

These are all of the Global Location features for the British Isles on the CE Syllabus. Print out the map below and mark these places on it. 
NOTE: You might find it easier to print two copies and complete one physical map and one human one ...

Map of the British Isles

Physical Features:

 1.    Sea areas:    

  a.       English Channel

  b.      Irish Sea

  c.       North Sea

 2.    Rivers:           

 a.    Severn

 b.    Thames

 c.     Trent

 d.    Clyde

 e.    Shannon

3.     Highland Areas:             

a.    Grampians

b.    Lake District

c.     Pennines

d.    Snowdonia

Human Features:

1.    Countries:    

a.    England

b.    Wales

c.     Scotland

d.    Northern Ireland

e.    the Republic of Ireland

2.    Major cities

a.    Belfast

b.    Birmingham

c.     Cardiff

d.    Dublin

e.    Edinburgh

f.     Glasgow

g.    Liverpool

h.    London

i.      Manchester

j.      Newcastle

 

Scholars' Curry

Below is a chloropleth map showing which areas in the UK like the spiciest curries: it is a curry 'heat' map.

How was the data collected?

This is an interesting question and the first one that you should ask if you are looking to see if this data means anything  useful.

According to the Independent, who published this map, the data was collected by monitoring the location of social media posts that mentioned names of curries. These were then given a spice rating and were then collated to give each area a score out of 1000.

What questions could you be asked?

Describe the pattern on the map?

Where do people like the hottest and mildest curries?

If you could find another chloropleth map (e.g. average wealth, average age) to compare with this one in order to investigate a possible cause or relationship, which would you choose and why?

Thank you Dr Lee for forwarding the map!

8S Christmas Work: Part I

With some of you having exams early in the New Year, we need to keep your Geographical brains ticking over. I have printed you all a resource pack and all of the questions can be answered from that ... although it would do you no harm at all to keep abreast of the news and what is going on around the world.

Please choose a question from below and email me your answer (send your essay as the text of the email rather than attaching a word/Pages document ... it is easier to mark and return)

Scholarship Style Questions:

1. For a recent flood;
     a) Where and when did the flood occur?   (2)
     b) Outline the key reasons why the flood occurred.    (4)
     c) Describe the main primary effects of the flood on people.   (6)
     d) What were (or will be) the secondary effects of the flood.    (6)
     e) How could the effects of future floods be reduced in the area? (7)

2. "Floods cause more damage in MICs than LICs."
     To what extent do you agree with this statement? (25)



A full set CE/CASE notes can be found here.
For those who asked: the CE/CASE syllabus that we follow can be found here.

Geography Cryptic Crossword 2015

It's here the antidote to post Christmas lunch depression: Mr Miller's Cryptic Christmas Crossword 2015.

There are over 150 clues all pertaining to geographical locations ... some real, some less so. As always there will be prizes for each Brambletye family that manages to complete this crossword and hand it in to Mr Miller during the first week of the Spring Term 2016.

To download a copy: click here ... share and enjoy.