Download Weather Wiz Kids KEY

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Weather Wiz Kids KEY
Go to - (weatherwizkids.com)
click on: Weather Forecasting
1. What is a major tool involved in predicting weather?
Weather forecasting involves a combination of computer models,
observations, and knowledge of trends and patterns.
2. What are 7 bits of information that a weather station symbol can tell you?
Wind, Temperature, Weather, Dew Point, Sky cover, Pressure Trend,
And Sea-level Pressure
3. Fill in this venn diagram about the 2 types of pressure systems.
•
•
•
•
•
•
High Pressure
Mass of Cool Air
Dry Air
Fair Weather
Light Winds
Sunny Skies
Represented by
a big Blue
Capital H
Characteristics
In Common
• Masses of Air
• Involves Weather
• Bring Winds
• Represented by
a colored Capital
Letter
Low Pressure
• Mass of Warm Air
• Moist Air
• Stormy Weather
• Strong Winds
• Represented by
a big RED
Capital L
4. Explain how the relative humidity differs for high to low.
By understanding that the process of sweating is your body's attempt to keep
cool and maintain its current temperature, if the air is at 100-percent
relative humidity, sweat will not evaporate into the air. As a result, we feel
much hotter than the actual temperature when the relative humidity is
high. If the relative humidity is low, we can feel much cooler than the
actual temperature because our sweat evaporates easily, cooling ­us off.
5. How does an air mass form?
Air masses take on the characteristics and humidity of the land/ocean that surrounds
them
6. What things determine how you label an air mass?
The Air’s temperature and moisture content (humidity), but air masses
are also labeled by where the air mass is located.
7. What is the boundary between air masses called?
A Front
8. Draw all the types of frontal systems and list what color they should be.
A Warm front is a
series of RED
semicircles pointing
in the direction the
warm air is moving.
A Cold Front is
represented by a
series of BLUE
Triangles pointing in
the direction the cold
air is moving.
A stationary front is a
boundary between two air
masses that more or less
doesn’t move, but some
stationary fronts can
wobble back and forth for
several hundred miles a
day. A stationary front is
represented as an
alternating warm and
cold front symbol.
An occluded front is a
combination of two
fronts that form when
a cold front catches up
and overtakes a warm
front. An occluded
front is represented as
a purple line with teeth
and half circles.
9. How is an occluded and stationary front alike and different?
-alike: Involve both warm and cold fronts interacting
-different: Stationary more or less doesn’t move but one front is not overtaking the other,
Occluded is where cold catches and takes over warm
10. What does Radar short for?
Radar is an electronic instrument, which determines the direction and
distance of objects that reflect radio energy back to the radar site. It
stands for Radio Detection And Ranging. This is what meteorologists use to
see rain or snow.
11, What example of sound do they give you to explain how the Doppler effect works?
Doppler Radar gets its name from the Doppler Effect. Have you ever listened
to a train whistle as it was coming toward you? You probably noticed that the
pitch of the whistle changed as the train passed you and moved away.
This change in the frequency of sound is called the Doppler Effect. Doppler
Radar measures the changes in the frequency of the signal it receives to
determine the wind.
Click on: Winter Storms
12. What air mass is more dense cold air or warm air?
Cold Air
13. Describe the structure of a snowflake.
Snowflakes are made of ice crystals. Each snowflake is six-sided and made of
as many as 200 ice crystals. Snowflakes form in clouds where the
temperature is below freezing. The ice crystals form around tiny bits of dirt
that have been carried up into the atmosphere by the wind. As the snow
crystals grow, they become heavier and fall toward the ground.
14. What is the major difference in sleet and freezing rain?
State of Matter; Sleet is raindrops that freeze into ice pellets before
reaching the ground. Freezing rain is rain (still liquid) that falls onto a surface
with a temperature below freezing.
15. What 2 pieces of data are used to come up with “Wind Chill”?
The wind chill is the temperature your body feels when the air temperature is
combined with the wind speed. The higher the wind speed the faster exposed
areas of your body lose heat and the colder you feel.
Click on: Thunderstorms
16, What is present in a thunderstorm?
A thunderstorm is a storm with lightning and thunder. Its produced by a
cumulonimbus cloud, usually producing gusty winds, heavy rain and sometimes
hail.
17. When do we usually see thunderstorms?
Thunderstorms can occur year-round and at all hours. But they are most likely
to happen in the spring and summer months and during the afternoon and
evening hours.
18. How does lightening create thunder?
When a lightning bolt travels from the cloud to the ground it actually opens
up a little hole in the air, called a channel. Once the light is gone the air
collapses back in and creates a sound wave that we hear as thunder. The
reason we see lightning before we hear thunder is because light travels
faster than sound!
19. What should you do if your hair starts to stand up in a lightening storm?
If you see dark clouds, then lightning could be present, but the best thing you
can do is to listen for thunder. If you hear thunder, then you need to go
indoors or get in a car. Don't be outside, where lightning could strike! If your
hair stands on end or your skin starts to tingle, lightning maybe about to
strike. Get down on your hands and knees and keep your head tucked in. Do
not lay flat, because it can give lightning a better chance of strike you.
20. How do you determine how far a storm is away?
You can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is. Next time you see a
storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning
and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that
will tell you how far away the storm is in miles. For example: If you counted
10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles
away!