GEO 221 Research Paper: (30% of final grade, 150 points)
Choose a single weather event that had a major impact on a particular city, region or your life (you must first have the event cleared with me before you begin).
Your research paper will give a comprehensive account of the event, describing the evolution of the storm throughout its entire life cycle from formation to dissipation. What meteorological factors led to the storm’s development? Discuss how accurate or inaccurate initial forecasts were for the event. Also, be sure to describe the major societal impacts or damage the storm caused for a particular area (news articles can be good sources for this information). Also, in your opinion, what could have been done differently to improve the preparation before the event?
You must have a minimum of three academic sources in your paper. Peer-reviewed journal articles or chapters in books are good sources.
If you are researching a tropical storm or hurricane, the National Hurricane Center publishes reports on individual storms that you can find on their website: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2008&basin=atl
Papers should be written as a scholarly treatment of the topic. The paper should contain citations (APA formatting – https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ ) for all facts or analyses that are not your own.
Do not quote excessively. Quotes in contemporary research articles are limited to half a sentence in most instances. It is far better to paraphrase in your own words, which will better maintain the flow of the text and make it easier on the reader. Please be aware that you will be graded quite harshly on these quotes, ask questions and take note of the web address above for insight into the proper formatting.
Your paper must have a minimum of five (5) pages of text (not including references, tables, illustrations…You will not need an abstract for this assignment, if you choose to include one then you will need six (6) pages of text content). It must be typed and double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman font.
