One time I drove with some other scientists to Death Valley in California where we saw some rocks which had been sculpted by strong winds. These rocks, called "ventifacts," are usually smooth and have a rippled look where the wind has eaten them into odd shapes. Areas with severe winds and extreme cold, like some areas of Antarctica, can have whole valleys covered with them.

Extreme weather can also cause non-living objects, like mountains, to change their shape. When I was in Colorado I saw an area where the ground shifted because of a huge rainstorm. All of the water caused part of the soil on one of the hills to move down the hillside.

Storms can also bring in sediments and leave them behind in layers which we call "storm deposits." Because we know what storms bring in right now we can also find evidence for old storms by looking at mudstones and sandstones which formed in the ocean.

Weather can affect non-living things in many more ways than I talked about. When you get older you could discover some new effects of strange weather as well!

Typically when we think about extreme weather, we think about the effect of weather on humans and other life forms. However, weather events also greatly impact non-living things. Freeze and thaw cycles tend to break up rocks, weathering them physically. Landscape erosion can be greatly enhanced by storms because rivers and streams are able to transport larger amounts and larger sizes of material than they otherwise would, due to faster flow velocities. Sand at beaches is carried away by strong storms until it can be replenished over time. Sediments become hydrated during rainfall events, which can result in landslides and land movement. Many of these processes can create hazards for humans, but the physical landscape is very much shaped by extreme weather events.

Weather is the source of all erosion. We may not see the effects over a day, or a week, but rain and wind (or extreme rain and wind like cyclones or hurricanes) cause the slow destruction of non-living things. Let's consider an example. If you have a red plastic bucket and you forget to put it away and it stays outside for years. Over time, the sun will bleach the colour so it will appear faded, the wind and rain will slowly deteriorate the plastic by scratching and slowly dissolving it. It might seem impossible to imagine that this is happening because it is a very slow process. But ancient cities like Rome are great examples where huge pillars of rock are now crumbly because they have been eroded by wind and rain.

Extreme heat causes lakes and rivers to dry up. Some kinds of earth can also dry up so much that it gets cracked.

Extreme rainfall causes floods and landslides.

Extreme cold can cause rocks to break, when the water that leaked into cracks in the rock freezes and expands.

If I knew more about the water cycle, I might be able to tell you more about how extreme weather affects clouds and other parts of the water cycle.

Weather is weather, which is nonliving. Erosion is affected by weather, the more rain there is, the more erosion. The more temperatures change, the more erosion because things swell as they warm up and shrink as they cool off, which can cause them to break.