Weather

WEATHER

By: Mrs. Pealer's Class

Have you ever looked outside and seen something fall from the sky?  It is called precipitation.  There are many kinds of precipitation like snow, rain, and hail. Precipitation includes all forms of moisture that falls to earth's surface.  Precipitation is observed and classified by the type of intensity and character.      

There are different types of storms: Tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms. Tornadoes are formed by cold air smacks warm air and they form a super cell. They form an unbalanced environment. These masses make a crazy upward direction and they form a rotation also called a funnel. There are different kinds of tornados.

 Hurricanes are formed by belts of low pressure called "Easterly Waves". Regions of low pressure occur with ocean winds. On certain occasions, Easterly Waves form a tropical depression, which are characterized by winds of up to thirty one miles per hour.

Thunderstorms are formed by the surface when it is heated by the sun. The surface heats the air above the surface through the process of condition. The action of warm air rising and cold air sinking plays a key role in the formation of a severe thunderstorms. When warm surface air is forced to rise, it will continue to rise because it is less dense than the surrounding air.

There are three different types of weather instruments: an anemometer, barometer, and rain gauge. An anemometer measures wind speed because it has cups and the wind pushes the cups and spins them faster. A barometer is like a compass, but it measures the amount of air pressure. A rain gauge is a tube that when it rains it measures the amount of rain that fell.

A meteorologist is a person who predicts the weather. Meteorologists work in a big tower building with a lot of satellites outside. A meteorologist gives the information to the TV guide, and then they tell the Weatherman/woman.  The weatherman/woman broadcasts the weather on TV.

Do you ever wonder what those cotton balls in the sky are? They aren’t really cotton balls, they are called clouds. There are different types of clouds like cumulus, stratus, cirrus, cumulonimbus and many more. Stratus clouds are one of the lowest clouds. So when you go outside and you see fog it is a cloud. Cumulonimbus clouds are big gray clouds that bring in horrible thunderstorms. Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds that are about 1,000 away from the ground. Cirrus clouds are thin clouds that come from high winds and are 6,000 meters from the ground.       

Did you know that there are two types of fronts? There is a cold front and a warm front. Fronts divide air masses of different temperatures. A cold front is faster than a warm front. Cold fronts have the worst weather than any other front. A warm air front replaces the place where a cold front was.

Have you ever gone outside and it is hot? That is from heat energy from the sun's atmosphere. The sun is transferred through space, through the earth’s atmosphere, and to the surface. All that heat makes heat energy. There are three parts of heat energy called radiation, conduction, and convection.

Do you ever go outside and the weather or temperature changes each day? Temperature is a degree of hotness and coldness. They can be measured with a thermometer. It is a measure of how fast the atoms and molecules move. Temperature is measured in degrees: Fahrenheit and Celsius on the Kelvin Scales.