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Severe Weather SEVERE WEATHER ACTIVITIES READING A WEATHER MAP Accessing weather information is easy. You can check an app on your phone, go to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s weather website or any number of other places. Most of these sites use weather maps. So, although you can get weather information easily, learning what the weather map shows would be helpful too. A weather map is a graphic depiction of meteorological conditions. There are several kinds of weather maps. Surface maps and upper level maps depict just what they say. A surface level map shows information about ground conditions, like temperature, pressure, dew points and precipitation. Upper level maps show the weather that is a few thousand feet up in the atmosphere. While a surface map will show the ground temperature, an upper level map will show where the air mass that is causing that temperature is coming from and where it is going. There are radar, satellite, temperature, precipitation and wind among many other types of maps. The key to using the wide variety of maps is learning how to interpret each one. Once you learn how to understand and read various types of weather maps, you may begin making your own forecast, which is an estimate of what conditions to expect in the near future. Like any map, there are symbols on weather maps. There are symbols for fronts, temperature, precipitation, cloud coverage and many other weather conditions. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s weather map uses a specific set of weather symbols, but other maps may use other symbols. OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to • Identify and compare weather symbols • Interpret a weather map using those symbols • Apply the symbols and create a forecast MATERIALS NEEDED: Weather map from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or access to the ePost per student, 1 set of weather maps covering 5 days, blank United States map, colored pencils, Weather Map Symbols Worksheet SEVERE WEATHER ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY SET ONE – WEATHER SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s weather map uses a specific set of weather symbols, while other maps may use different symbols. Have your students research different types of maps and record the symbols on the Weather Map Symbols Worksheet found at the end of this set of lessons. Review the Vocabulary Words at the end of this lesson and have your students fill in the Definitions on their Worksheets. ACTIVITY SET TWO – READING A WEATHER MAP 1. Review with the class their Weather Map Symbols Worksheets. 2. Give the students their St. Louis Post-Dispatch weather map or have them log into the ePost and navigate to the weather map. Where are the High and Low Pressure areas? What type of weather would they predict for those areas? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What types of fronts are shown? Where will the weather be stormy? Is there any place that they think will be pleasant weather? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What temperature and precipitation would they predict for these cities? Where are the highest and lowest temperatures today? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Where would be a good place to go to the beach today? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SEVERE WEATHER ACTIVITIES Would it be a good day for a hike in Washington State? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Where would you go for skiing, either snow or water, today? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Using the information from this map, have them create their own United States weather map, with tomorrow’s forecast using symbols and colors as shown on their Weather Map Symbols Worksheet Phoenix AZ Galveston TX Miami FL Omaha NE New York NY Washington D.C. Seattle WA Augusta ME Los Angeles CA Atlanta GA Minneapolis MN New Orleans LA Chicago IL ACTIVITY SET THREE – SEQUENCING MAPS Give each group a set of 5 weather maps and have them place the maps in the correct sequence. They should be prepared to justify their sequence. Remind them that weather generally flows from West to East in the United States. SEVERE WEATHER ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY SET FOUR – SATELLITE VS. NEWSPAPER WEATHER MAP As we learned earlier, there are many types of maps. Search for a satellite weather map and then use your ePost access to view the St. Louis Post-Dispatch weather map from the same day. Point out the differences in how weather is displayed on each map. Have your students transfer the information on the satellite weather map to their blank maps, using symbols from their Weather Map Symbols Worksheet. They can denote cloud coverage and look for areas of cloud circulation, which would indicate an area of High or Low pressure. What other information can they find to add to their maps? Extension – The St. Louis area received record amounts of rain in late December 2015. Have your students find satellite images and weather maps from that time period. Have them develop a presentation about the circumstances that created this period of extreme rain. VOCABULARY High Pressure a whirling mass of cool, dry air that generally brings fair weather and light winds. When viewed from above, winds spiral out of a high-pressure center in a clockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere. Low Pressure a whirling mass of warm, moist air that generally brings stormy weather with strong winds. When viewed from above, winds spiral into a low-pressure center in a counterclockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere. Millibars air pressure is usually expressed in units of millibars (mb) or inches of mercury (in. Hg.). At sea level, standard air pressure is 1013.25 mb. or 29.92 in. Hg. Changes in the air pressure or barometric pressure mean a change in weather. Front a boundary separating two masses of air of different densities, and is the principal cause of meteorological phenomena. Temperature a degree of hotness or coldness the can be measured using a thermometer. Wind direction the direction the wind is coming from. If you stand so that the wind is blowing directly into your face, the direction you are facing names the wind. Wind speed the average speed of the wind over a 10-minute period at a height of 10 meters above the surface. Humidity the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in the mixture to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature: Relative humidity is normally expressed as a percentage; a higher percentage means that the air-water mixture is more humid. Precipitation water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. Rain moisture condensed from the atmosphere that falls visibly in separate drops. SEVERE WEATHER ACTIVITIES Sleet a form of precipitation consisting of ice pellets, often mixed with rain or snow. Wintry Mix variable precipitation consisting of rain, freezing rain, sleet, or snow. Snow atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes or accumulating on the ground as a white layer. Hail pellets of frozen rain that fall in showers from cumulonimbus clouds. Fog a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface that obscures or restricts visibility. Haze a concentrate of smoke and other pollutants in the air, usually a low-hanging shroud that impairs visibility and may become a respiratory health threat. Thunderstorms a storm with thunder and lightning and typically also heavy rain or hail. Drizzle a light rain falling in very fine drops. Squalls a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed that is usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Sky coverage the amount of the sky that is covered by clouds, fog, haze, smoke or the like. Clouds there are ten basic types of clouds but many cloud symbols. SEVERE WEATHER WORKSHEET SYMBOL NAME SYMBOL PICTURE SYMBOL DEFINITION High Pressure __________________________________________________________ Low Pressure __________________________________________________________ Millibars __________________________________________________________ Warm Front __________________________________________________________ Cold Front __________________________________________________________ Stationary Front __________________________________________________________ Occluded Front __________________________________________________________ Temperature __________________________________________________________ Wind Direction __________________________________________________________ Wind Speed __________________________________________________________ Humidity __________________________________________________________ Precipitation __________________________________________________________ Rain __________________________________________________________
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