____ + ____ + ____ = weather
Sun, air, and water
What is the atmosphere?
The layer of air surrounding the earth.
What causes wind?
By the movement of air masses. Warm air rises and cooler air sinks to fill its place.
How can the wind affect weather?
Wind can move clouds and blow rain drops miles away from the clouds they came from.
What is a Meteorologist?
A person who studies and forecasts the weather.
What happens to the earth’s water during the water cycle?
It gets recycled.
What are the four stages of the water cycle?
1. Evaporation 2. Condensation 3.precipitation 4. collection
What is it called when heat from the sun turns water into vapor?
Evaporation.
What happens when water condenses?
Water vapor is cooled and returns to its liquid form.
Rain, snow, sleet, hail are forms of what?
Precipitation.
Name and Describe this cloud
Cirrus clouds which are thin and wispy.
Name and Describe this cloud
Cumulus clouds which are fluffy like cotton balls.
Name and Describe this cloud
Stratus clouds which are like a blanket over the sky.
When do clouds form?
During the condensation stage of the water cycle.
What has to be present in the atmosphere for a cloud to form?
Nuclei.
What does the sun do to the air?
Changes the temperature.
Why does it rain?
The water droplets in the cloud bunch together. When these droplets get too heavy they fall to earth as rain.
What happens when the temperature in a cloud is very cold?
The rain forming inside the cloud turns to snow.
How many types of snowflakes are there? Can you name any of them?
Six. Needles, columns, plates, columns capped with plates, dendrites and stars.
How are all the types of snowflakes the same?
They have six sides and are made of tiny ice crystals.
What do we use a thermometer for?
Measuring the temperature.
What would we say it is when it is 49 o F, hot, warm, cool, or cold?
Cool.
What would we say it is when it is 98 o F, hot, warm, cool, or cold?
Hot.
What is an air mass?
A large body of air with similar temperature.
There is a warm air mass over Kentucky. If a cool air mass is brought down from Canada, what kind of front is formed when the air masses meet?
A cold front.