Weather
1. Explain how each of the following is formed: fog, rain, dew, snow, hail, frost.
2. Identify either in the sky or in pictures, the following types of clouds: cirrus, cumulus,
stratus, nimbus. What kind of weather is associated with each?
3. Explain the action of a mercury or spirit thermometer, a mercury barometer, an aneroid
barometer, and a rain gauge.
4. Why is it possible to be rainy on one side of a mountain range and dry on the other?
Give an illustration for your country or region.
a. Why is it cooler and more moist in the mountains than in the lowlands?
b. From which direction do rain and clear weather usually come in your locality?
5. Show, with the help of a diagram, how the earth's relationship to the sun produces the
seasons.
6. What causes lightning and thunder? What different kinds of lightning are there?
7. With the help of a diagram show what a convection is? What is its relation to wind?
8. Explain how radar, satellites and computers are used in weather forecasting.
9. Tell how the following can affect our weather:
a. Jet streams
b. Volcano eruptions
10. Make a drawing showing the water cycle in weather.
11. Make a simple wind vane or rain gauge.
12. Keep a weather chart for one week and record readings at twelve?hour intervals. Include
the following:
a. temperature
b. moisture (dew, fog, rain, frost, or snow)
c. cloud formation
d. wind direction.
Level: 1
1/1
Weather Honor
(Answers come from several sources, but we’ve included a few video links too.) Here is an excellent link on weather and climate
that goes way beyond this honor: http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles1.htm
1. How does each of these form:
Fog: When the temperature drops within 4 degrees of the dew point. It’s like having a low cloud.
http://www.ehow.com/video_4908373_fog-form_.html
Rain: When moist air cools it forms droplets in the clouds and falls down as rain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lihKZTC0aW4
Dew: Moisture in the air condenses onto vary small objects such as spider webs or leaves, causing small
droplets on the small object.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf9FyOwFLYg
Snow: When the water in the clouds cools to the point it freezes into very small crystals and then falls to
the ground.
http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=How_does_Snow_form_&video_id=43987
Sleet: Is when snow melts partially causing it to be not quite snow, but not quite rain. It does not normal
create a layer on the ground unless the temperature is below freezing. Sleet can also be frozen raindrops
or ice pellets but not hail. The ice pellets bounce on the ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeG6UqyaCV0 (this video also explains snow)
Hail: Ice crystals that fall but an updraft of wind blows them back up and they get another coating of water
which freezes, and the process repeats until it gets heavier than the updraft can push it up. The biggest
hailstone (in US history) was 8” in diameter, July 2010 in South Dakota.
http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_5238519_hail-form_.html
Frost: When the moisture in the air condenses onto frozen objects it creates frost. It is frozen dew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxVTReI2w0 (this video also explain the formation of snowflakes)
2. Identify clouds:
Did the game on this website and got 18/20 (Did go back to correct a couple.)
http://globe.gov/sda-bin/m2h?gl/clouds.men,,,Q
3. Explain the action of a mercury or spirit thermometer, mercury barometer, an aneroid
barometer, and a rain gauge.
Mercury Thermometer: The mercury heats up making it expand causing it to rise through the tube which
you can then read.
Barometer: Pressure going down pushes mercury up the tube which signifies a high pressure. Opposite
happens for low pressure. Pressure goes away and the mercury drops.
Rain Gauge: There are lines on a cup or bottle which tells you how much rainfall there is.
4. Why is it possible to be raining on one side of a mountain and sunny on the other? Use an
illustration to answer this question and be sure to cover the two below.
a. Why is it cooler and more moist in the mountains?
b. Show which direction the moisture comes from in your area.
5. Show the sun’s relationship to the earth in
regard to seasons.
(Here is a chart chosen from several during
research on the internet.)
6. What causes thunder and lightening?
Cause of thunder link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RpNuXP7XBw
Cause of lightning link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7c6z_3dLE4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8h60S1GsM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8G443DyA00
Lightning is formed when a build up of negative charges build in the cloud and positive charges build in
the ground. When there is enough a step leader (which you can’t see) is formed in the cloud and one is
formed on the ground. When those two meet then we see the visible lightening which also creates the
thunder because of the massive heat (54000) which expands the air and produces sound waves which we
hear as thunder.
What types of lightening are there?
Link (see above links too): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbsUkTxFs8s&feature=related
Cloud to Cloud -- Heat Lightening - can see but can’t hear
Cloud to Cloud or within cloud -- Sheet Lightening
Cloud to Ground
Ground to Cloud
Ball lightening
Sprites
7. What is convection and how it causes wind diagram: (link part 1 http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=rgyRsMsQsfE) (part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoMh1yL2cMA&feature=related
8. How are satellites, radar, and computers used in weather forecasting?
Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6wottnnXAo
Radar means radio detection and ranging predict precipitation. Satellites predict the clouds. Computers
gather the information from the radar and satellites.
9. How do the following affect our weather (copied from wikipedia):
Jet Streams (http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/553449/weather_extra_jet_stream): The jet stream,
a narrow band of fast moving wind, generally above 9 km (30,000 feet) has three dimensional regions or
pockets of maximum winds along the jet. Where the winds enter these max regions it is appropriately
called an entrance region and where it exits, an exit region. As the wind accelerates going into a jet max it
produces an area of divergence. This divergence aloft helps generate areas of convergence near the surface.
These latter areas are called low pressure centers. And from them we get lots of weather.
Volcanos: When a volcano erupts, it sends incredible amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.
This is enough to decrease the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth, causing a temporary (though
sometimes devastating) global cooling. It also affects the intensity of the colors in the sunset for years.
The main effect on weather right near a volcano is that there is often a lot of rain, lightning, and thunder
during an eruption. This is because all the ash particles that are thrown up into the atmosphere are good
at attracting/collecting water droplets. We don’t quite know exactly how the lightning is caused but it
probably involves the particles moving through the air and separating positively and negatively charged
particles
10. Draw the water cycle
11. Make a rain gauge
12. Keep a weather chart for one week.