The Weather
Basics on the topic The Weather
What is Weather?
If you look out of the window now, what's your weather like? Do you see the sun and blue sky, or do you see dark clouds? Maybe it's raining or snowing? The weather can be quite different.
In elementary school, children are usually taught what weather is in a simple manner. Various weather characteristics are addressed for this purpose. You learn in science class that weather is a combination of sun, water, and air.
The Interaction of Sun, Water, and Air
The sun, water in its various forms, and air are closely linked when creating weather.
- The Earth rotates at a slight angle around the sun, causing the sun's rays to hit the earth's surface with differing strengths.
- Where the sun's rays hit very shallowly, the earth is warmed only slightly. The more vertical the sun's rays hit, the warmer it gets. In the United States, the sun's rays are weaker in winter than in summer.
- When the sun warms the Earth, water evaporates and enters the air as water vapor. This warm air rises with the water vapor.
- In the upper atmosphere, the air cools again and clouds of tiny water droplets form.
- During the day, clouds covering the sky block the sun's rays – this usually keeps the air colder. When there are few clouds in the sky, it is often warmer.
- As more and more water droplets gather in the cloud, it eventually begins to rain or even snow at lower temperatures.
The sun, water, and air thus create different weather conditions, also known as weather patterns.
Weather Characteristics
How do you explain weather to children in the simplest way? You can remember facts about weather better if you examine and measure the individual aspects or characteristics of weather.
Weather Characteristics – Temperature
Have you ever used a thermometer before? The thermometer shows you the temperature. It is usually given in degrees Fahrenheit. What do you think weather is like at around 80°F? It's probably sunny without clouds. The thermometer also shows temperatures below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, when it's winter and water freezes into ice. When rain falls at 32°F, it usually turns into snow.
Weather Characteristics – Humidity
Water evaporates and rises as water vapor. You can measure how much water vapor is in the air. A hygrometer measures the humidity and shows the percent of humidity in the air. The average humidity is about 50%. If the hygrometer shows significantly more, you will feel it: the air will be very humid. This may also happen to you in the bathroom when taking a shower. The bathroom mirror will fog up. This shows that the air is particularly humid.
Weather Characteristics – Air Pressure
Have you ever heard of air pressure? Air can be measured – or rather, the pressure of the air is measured. Here, the amount of space each individual air particle has is measured. If the air pressure is high, the air particles are close together and weather is typically dry. When the air pressure is low, it is often wet and cloudy outside. You can measure the air pressure with a barometer.
Weather Characteristics – Precipitation
Do you know what precipitation is? It can be rain, snow, or hail. These are accurately determined with a rain gauge. Do you think it counts the individual number of water droplets and snowflakes? No, it measures the total amount of water that has fallen to the earth's surface in a given time period.
Weather Characteristics – Wind
Moisten your index finger and hold it up into the air. If the air moves, you will feel it on your finger. Air movements are also called wind, and you can determine the strength of the wind with an anemometer. The wind strength is typically given in miles per hour, or mph. A light breeze has about 3 mph and a real storm 20 mph.
What is Weather? – Summary
Let’s review what we learned about weather in this text.
There are many weather stations around the world that continuously measure the weather conditions. They measure temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure, and wind. With the help of these measurements, they can predict weather.
| Weather Element | Measuring Device |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Thermometer |
| Humidity | Hygrometer |
| Air Pressure | Barometer |
| Precipitation | Rain gauge |
| Wind | Anemometer |
When the measurement data is evaluated over a longer period of time, the climate can be determined for a certain location. You can also determine the weather by looking at clouds: there are different types of clouds that appear in certain weather conditions. There are feather clouds and pile clouds and really dark clouds, the thunderstorm clouds. Deepen your knowledge of weather with our interactive exercises, worksheets and other activities on what is weather?.
Transcript The Weather
The weather. Oh, look Uma is outside! It's raining... It's snowing... the sun is shining... The weather can be quite different, but what is weather, and where does it come from anyways? Weather is created when the sun, water, and air work together. Since the earth is round, the sun's rays strike the earth differently in different places. When the sun warms the earth, water evaporates, or in other words turns into vapor, which is gas in the air. The warm air rises with the water vapor, but once it reaches a certain height it cools again and clouds are formed from tiny water droplets. If there are many clouds in the sky, they stop the sun's rays and the air gets colder. If there are few clouds in the sky, the sun's rays can shine straight down to the earth. This makes it warmer, and the temperature rises again. The weather can be measured and described using traits. One trait to describe weather is temperature... but what kind of device can measure temperature? Temperature can be measured using a thermometer! In the United States we measure temperature using fahrenheit... which is represented with THIS symbol. For example, when it is snowing, the temperature is very low... and when it is warm, the temperature is very high! Another trait to describe weather is humidity... which is when the water vapor stays in the air. It's hard to see humidity, so we use a device called a hygrometer. Have you ever drawn something on a window that's fogged up? When windows are fogged up, the humidity in that place is high. If the evaporated water rises, the air becomes colder again and tiny droplets of water form. When that happens, clouds are created... like the cirrus clouds, which look kind of like feathers. These are cumulus clouds, they usually mean sun and good weather. Have you ever seen clouds like this before? These are called cirrocumulus clouds, they stack up high and look very fluffy... but, they usually mean a storm is coming! Watch the clouds today and tell us in the comments what you saw! Water can come back to earth from the clouds (...) do you know what it's called when water falls out from the clouds? Rain! Snow and hail are also kinds of water that fall from clouds. The technical term for this is called precipitation. When it rains, we use a tool called a rain gauge to measure the water. Another trait is air pressure! It is always there, but most of the time you can't feel it. Have you ever had your ears pop in an airplane or going up a steep hill? That's from the air pressure! We measure air pressure with a tool called the barometer. When the air pressure is low, it is usually rainy and cloudy. When the air pressure is high, the weather is dry. But one trait is still missing... the wind! Wind is moving air, we often feel this outside. There are different wind speeds. When the wind is zero miles per hour, there is NO wind. and with a wind speed of seventy-five miles per hour, you have a hurricane, which is strong enough to uproot a whole tree. There are many weather stations in the world constantly measuring the elements of weather to keep us safe. Which helps us to predict the weather. Weather stations measure temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure and wind. Today we learned all about the weather! We learned about tools to measure the weather and different traits... and Uma? HER favorite weather seems to be summer!
The Weather exercise
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What things make weather?
HintsWeather is created when three objects interact with each other.
Use this diagram to help remember the three objects that make the weather.
SolutionWeather is created when the sun, water, and air interact with each other. Depending on the interaction, it can change the type of weather that is produced!
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What are types of precipitation?
HintsPrecipitation happens when water falls from clouds.
There are three types of precipitation listed.
SolutionRain, snow, and hail are all forms of water falling from clouds. The technical term for this water that falls from clouds is precipitation.
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What are the weather traits?
HintsThis trait of moving air can uproot a tree if it is strong enough!
This device uses Fahrenheit to measure heat and cold.
SolutionHere are all the weather traits!
Temperature measures heat and cold using either Fahrenheit or Celcius.
Humidity is the measure of water vapor in the air.
Precipitation is when water falls from clouds in the sky.
Low air pressure readings usually mean bad wet weather. High air pressure readings usually mean sunny dry weather .
Wind is moving air.
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Which tools measure which weather trait?
HintsA weather station might use all of these tools to measure weather but it is not a weather measuring tool itself.
The type of weather measured might be in the name of the tool itself!
SolutionHere are all the correct matches!
A thermometer measures temperature.
A hygrometer measures humidity.
A rain gauge measures precipitation.
An anemometer measures wind speed.
A barometer measures air pressure.
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What is the correct name of this location?
HintsThe stations described watch out for more than just precipitation.
All of the occurrences that these stations look out for are weather occurrences.
SolutionWeather stations measure temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and air pressure globally to predict the weather and keep people safe around the world.
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What do we call the types of clouds?
HintsCirrus Clouds are said to look like feathers!
Cumulonimbus clouds are dark clouds that show a storm is coming.
SolutionHere are the types of clouds we learned about today!
No clouds again
No cloud’s
I saw cirrocumulus clouds