Res 2024-045 approving the 2024 City of San Marcos Hazards Mitigation Action Plan (“HMAP”)

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SECTION 4: RISK OVERVIEW Table 4-1. Hazard Descriptions Severe winter storms may include snow, sleet, freezing rain, or a mix of these wintry forms of precipitation. Blizzards, the most dangerous of all winter storms, combine low temperatures, heavy snowfall, and winds of at least 35 miles per hour, Winter Storm reducing visibility to only a few yards. Ice storms occur when moisture falls and freezes immediately upon impact on trees, power lines, communication towers, structures, roads, and other hard surfaces. Winter storms and ice storms can down trees, cause widespread power outages, damage property, and cause fatalities and injuries to human life. DROLOGIC A prolonged period of less than normal precipitation such that Drought the lack of water causes a serious hydrologic imbalance. Common effects of drought include crop failure, water supply shortages, and fish and wildlife mortality. City of San Marcos I Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Update 2024 1 Page 2 Extreme heat is the condition whereby temperatures hover ten Extreme Heat degrees or more above the average high temperature in a region for an extended period of time. Hailstorms are a potentially damaging outgrowth of severe thunderstorms. Early in the developmental stages of a Hail hailstorm, ice crystals form within a low-pressure front due to the rapid rising of warm air into the upper atmosphere and subsequent cooling of the air mass. A hurricane is an intense tropical weather system of strong Hurricane/Tropical Storm thunderstorms with a well-defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or higher. Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge that occurs during Lightning an electrical storm. This discharge occurs between electrically charged regions of a cloud, between two clouds, or between a cloud and the ground. A thunderstorm occurs when an observer hears thunder. Radar observers use the intensity of the radar echo to distinguish Thunderstorm Wind between rain showers and thunderstorms. Lightning detection networks routinely track cloud -to -ground flashes, and therefore thunderstorms. A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that has contact with the ground and is often visible as a funnel cloud. Its vortex Tornado rotates cyclonically with wind speeds ranging from as low as 40 mph to as high as 300 mph. The destruction caused by tornadoes ranges from light to catastrophic, depending on the location, intensity, size, and duration of the storm. Severe winter storms may include snow, sleet, freezing rain, or a mix of these wintry forms of precipitation. Blizzards, the most dangerous of all winter storms, combine low temperatures, heavy snowfall, and winds of at least 35 miles per hour, Winter Storm reducing visibility to only a few yards. Ice storms occur when moisture falls and freezes immediately upon impact on trees, power lines, communication towers, structures, roads, and other hard surfaces. Winter storms and ice storms can down trees, cause widespread power outages, damage property, and cause fatalities and injuries to human life. DROLOGIC A prolonged period of less than normal precipitation such that Drought the lack of water causes a serious hydrologic imbalance. Common effects of drought include crop failure, water supply shortages, and fish and wildlife mortality. City of San Marcos I Hazard Mitigation Action Plan Update 2024 1 Page 2