The Weather

The Weather
How does the weather work? What drives the weather?
What is weather?
Wind – how do we measure wind? In m/s (mph) Beaufort scale (logarithmic scale of 0 to 15)
Clouds – Cirrus, cumulus, stratos
The sun drives the weather. It heats up the atmosphere?
The angle of the sun determines the seasons and temperatures during the day and during the year, but the climate is the driver of the weather. As the amount of greenhouse gases increase the climate changes. The planet is heating up resulting in the snow melting, sea level rise, more extreme weather. Another result is more, or less rain. In areas where it is dry it will become drier and wet areas will become wetter, leading to longer droughts in summer, and increased flooding in winter.
Not only that, climate change will also lead to increasing ocean acidification as more CO2 enters the system. This is bad news because coral reefs which are made of carbonate minerals will be destroyed.
Cause and effect.
Types of weather:
Objective: stormy weather (wind force 6 to 8), calm, hurricanes, tropical cyclones - weather systems.
Subjective: Nice weather, bad weather.
Characteristics of the weather:
Temperature (measured with a thermometer. In Europe the unit is in degrees Celsius, but in the USA it is degrees Fahrenheit. The scientific unit is Kelvin). Zero degrees Celsius (the freezing point of water) is 273.15 K, or 32°F. The boiling point is 100°C.
Air movement, water movement (or cycles) is described as wind.
Air pressures can high, or low. In BAR, or hPa. Normal air pressure at sea level is approx. 1 Bar or 1000 hPa. Air pressure is the result of the amount of air above us.
Seasons: Winter, spring, summer & fall (US English) UK English it’s autumn.
In the winter it’s colder than in summer.
What, where, why, how and when questions (about the weather).
Definition: The weather is a process in the atmosphere.

1. Understand the task (or the question).
2. Brainstorm
3. Report
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