Analyzing the Spatial and Temporal Impacts of Tropical Storm Imelda on the Houston Metropolitan Area Using GIS and Meteorological Data

The interaction between humans and weather can be identified through risk assessment and human geography. Understanding the implications of severe weather is crucial to not only coping with damage and loss of human life but mitigating and preventing it in the future. From Tropical Storm Imelda devastating Texan coast, we gained insight into how severe weather associated with tropical storms such as heavy rain and dangerous flooding disrupts society. With this weather data, we can visually represent many aspects of the storm and quantify the damage associated with the event. This allows us to then observe how the storm ultimately affected humans in terms of social, economic, physical, and emotional contexts within the impacted community of the greater Houston area. Specifically, we can identify the impacts of lightning and flooding associated with Imelda on the infrastructure and identify solutions to preventing a re-occurrence with similar weather events in the future.