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Storms are the most significant meteorological phenomena that affect the formation of coasts and human livelihood along them. Thus, risks related to coastal storms, such as flooding, loss of land, shipping, and other offshore activity, have had a significant influence on coastal societies and their economies. In the early 21st century, anthropogenic climate change will affect the locations and intensities of coastal storminess, impacting society. Storms are studied not only by natural scientists but also by social scientists. The former deal with the climatologies, dynamics, and mechanisms of storms but also with the identification of different types of storms, such as extratropical baroclinic storms, explosive cyclones, tropical storms, polar lows, medicanes, Vb-cyclones, and Australian east coast storms. Their significance is often through their physical impacts, in particular ocean waves and storm surges, which were and are associated with massive losses of lives, sometimes up to several hundred thousand people, and wealth. The perceptions of what storms constitute were different in different cultural contexts and times. In earlier days, higher forces were responsible for such storms, which they used to transfer messages to humans, physically based ideas have been forming since the 16th century. Another significant historical development was societies preparing to reduce their vulnerability to storms and to implement practices of insurance and risk management.

DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.853