Weather information for kidz

Authors: Alex Romo and Aayush Bhatia

The SunThe sun is the best thing to get energy and heat from. The sun’s heat has to go through the atmosphere which makes the water and air warmer causing convection currents, which are just movements of heat in the air and water. The currents move hot air and water across the entire world, which these currents never usually change.

The atmosphereThe atmosphere is made of four layers. The layers are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. The air is made up of mostly nitrogen, some oxygen, and a tiny bit of other gasses. The troposphere is the closest layer to the Earth’s surface which is where all weather occurs.

Troposphere● The troposphere, as you know, is where all

weather occurs. There are many air patterns that can occur in the troposphere. One of the patterns is the coriolis effect, which is the effect that controls the way air rotates in the northern and southern hemisphere. The northern currents curve right, and the southern curves left. Another pattern in the atmosphere are global winds. There are 4 types of global winds, there are doldrums, trade winds, prevailing westerlies, polar easterlies.

Ocean currentsAll currents are made by convection, which is the way heat

travels between other things like water and air. These currents made by convection affect everyday life and determine how boats travel. There are two different currents air currents and water currents. Water currents are either surface currents or deep ocean currents. Surface currents are small and are usually created by the air currents and stay near the coasts of land masses. Also they make gyres which are geyer circles of currents the flow according to the coriolis effect. The deep ocean currents run deep in the sea and are created by the difference of temperature and salinity( which is how much salt is in the water). The largest deep ocean current is the global conveyor belt, which moves cold and hot water to other places and is very strong

Air currents. Air currents are just the movement of air masses due to air pressure, temperature, or a jetstream. When there are two different air pressures, the higher pressure area flows air to the lower, which creates common winds and are shown on weather maps. Difference in temperature makes warmer temperature air flow to cooler air, which is higher up air activity. Lastly jet streams separate two air masses that have a huge difference in temperature, but they occur 4 miles up in the atmosphere

FrontsWhat is a Front? Is a boundary separating two air masses of air of different weights. There are three types of fronts:1. Cold Front: Is when a cold air mass merges with a

warm air mass causing the warm air to cool.2. Warm Front: Is when the warm air front merges

with the cold air masses causing storms.3. Occluded Front: When a cold front catches up with

the other cold front causing the warm front in between them to rise in the air.

High and Low PressureLow Pressure: Low pressure, aka cyclone, is a swirling

center of air and pressure that rotates in a counter clockwise pattern. In a cyclone the air rises becoming cool that forms clouds and precipitation.

High Pressure: High Pressure, aka anticyclone, is a swirling center of dry-air that spins in clockwise formation. In a anticyclone, the air descends which causes clear weather.

H= High PressureL= Low Pressure

Isotherm and Isobar Isobar: Are the lines on a map that show the equal or

constant pressure on a weather map.

Isotherm: Are the lines on a map that show the temperature of the area.

Weather map

Hurricanes Hurricanes are violent wind storms that form on

water. They are formed by the atmospheric moisture, from sea water evaporation, mixing in with warm ocean water creating a force to propel a hurricane. This is why most hurricanes occur near the equator. After those two combine, A wind pattern has to mix with in so there is an inward spiral formation. Once that happens, thunderstorms form. The greater they get, the stronger the winds get, which eventually forms a hurricane. When a hurricane forms, it destroys

everything in its path. It also causes floods, and brings a lot of debri.

TornadoesTornadoes are violent rotating wind storms that have

a funnel appearance. They are formed when warm and dry-cool air combine to form a visible, horizontal wind formation known as a tornado. They usually form when a thunderstorm is occurring. Similar to a hurricane, a tornado destroys everything in its path and also brings debri to the area. Tornados are

one of the most deadly storms they are.

PrecipitationThere are multiple types of precipitation:Rain (R): Is a liquid kind precipitation that falls in the

form of water droplets. Drizzle is a light form of rain in which it falls to the Earth's crust dilatory compare to rain.

Snow (SN): Is a combination of ice crystals that fall in the form of snowflakes. The only fall when the temperature in the troposphere for that area is > or = freezing (32*F or 0*C).

Sleet (SLT): Is a combination of ice and snow. It first falls in the form of snow, but then it passes through a layer in which the temperature is above freezing so it falls as sleet (AKA Ice Pellets)

Continued:Hail (GR): Is precipitation falling in the form of ice.

Hail is formed due to ice crystals and water freezing into ice.

Mixed Precipitation (MXD): Is the combination of two or more types of precipitation.

CloudsA cloud is a visible mass of condensed water vapor

floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the the Earth's crust. There are multiple types of clouds: ( Dew Point)

Low Cloud (Stratus): Low clouds are grey and usually cover the whole sky. These clouds usually result in fog or a slight drizzle.

High Clouds (Cirrus): Are wispy clouds that float high in the sky. They usually resemble fair weather.

Middle Clouds (Alto): Are grey clouds that appear as puffy masses. This usually means that there will be thunderstorms soon.

CloudsVertical Clouds (Cumulus): Are clouds that usually

look like big puffs of cotton. They have flat bottoms and will most likely turn into thunderstorm clouds.

Instruments meteorologists use.Meteorologists use many different tools to get the

information they need to share with the public.They use satellite images of places to see movement of clouds, and to compare to what will probably happen based on other situations. Also they use barometers which can measure the air pressure, thermometers which measure how warm or cool the air is, anemometers which measures wind speed, and hygrometers which measures how much water is in the air(humidity).

El nino and La ninaEl nino and La nina are climate changes in the

pacific, and around the tropics when abnormal weather happens. El nino is when the weather becomes abnormally warmer, and comes with flooding, disrupts animal food chains, tornadoes, and less hurricanes. La nina makes the weather in the pacific and tropics abnormally cold, and it brings snow and rain on the west coast, unusually cold weather in canada and alaska, abnormally warm through the U.S. mainland, drought in the southwest, and more than normal amount of hurricanes.

Credit

Aayush AlexFronts El nino and La nina

High and Low pressure Weather instruments

Isotherm and isobar Air currents

Weather map Ocean currents

Hurricanes/tornadoes The troposphere

Precipitation The atmosphere

Clouds The sun