Disaster Vocabulary
What is "frequency" when talking about disasters?
How often a disaster happens
Why is it important to collect data about floods?
To predict and prepare for future floods
Did Hurricane Felix make landfall on September 4, 2007?
Non-statistical question
Why?
The type of disaster (hurricane, flood, wildfire)
Categorical
What kind of natural disaster is measured with the Richter scale?
Earthquake
What is "intensity" in a natural disaster?
How much damage it causes
What is the first step when you want to use math to understand disaster data?
Identifying and asking a statistical question and collect data.
What day did the last tsunami occur?
Not statistical
The number of earthquakes that happened in a year.
Numerical
What natural disaster has categories from 1 to 5 based on wind speed?
Hurricane
What is "flood"?
Overflow of water onto normally dry land
After collecting data about natural disasters, what should you do next to find patterns?
Organize the data into tables or graphs.
What is the average wind speed during hurricanes in Florida?
Yes, statistical
The names of hurricanes that occurred last season.
Categorical
Which disaster could be measured in both speed and water height?
Tsunami
What does "damage" mean in disaster data?
Total cost or impact caused by the disaster.
Why do scientists use averages when studying tornado damage?
To find typical damage over several events
How high was the tallest tsunami ever recorded?
No, not statistical
The wind speeds measured during a tornado.
Numerical
What is the name of the tool that measures the speed of winds in tornadoes?
Anemometer
What does "magnitude" refer to in an earthquake?
The energy released by the earthquake
How can understanding data patterns help design better emergency plans?
It shows what areas or disasters need more attention
How much rain usually falls during a hurricane season in different cities?
Yes, statistical
What kind of damage do tornadoes usually cause?
Could be both
If you categorize damage into Fujita Scale levels (EF0, EF1, EF2…), it's categorical because each level is a group.
If you measure estimated repair costs (in dollars), it's numerical.
What type of natural disaster data could be described with both numbers and categories?
Hurricanes/Earthquakes