Natural Disasters
What do you call it when giant plates under the Earth bump into each other and make the ground shake crazily
A Earthquake
What is the main difference between how a cold front and a warm front move?
A cold front is basically a big, heavy bully that plows under warm air and pushes it up. A warm front is more like a gentle blanket; it just glides up and over the cold air because it's lighter. You can see animations of this on the National Weather Service learning page.
What are those big, big, fluffy cotton balls floating in the blue sky?
a cumulus cloud
What layer do we live in where all the crazy weather (like thunderstorms, rain, and snow) happens?
The Troposphere
I am the most common type of precipitation. I start as snow high up in the clouds, but melt into liquid water as I fall through warmer air. What am I?
rain
Which natural disaster is caused by way too much rain or overflowing rivers in places that are usually completely dry?
A flood
You are looking outside and see towering, dark cumulonimbus clouds, and the temperature is dropping fast. What kind of front just rolled in?
That’s a cold front! Because they push warm air up so violently, they make those big, scary storm clouds. Once they pass, the air behind them is dry and crisp. You can track exactly how fast these storms move on the Weather Underground live radar maps.
When the whole sky gets covered in this boring, flat, gray layer that looks like a giant, soggy blanket blocking the sun, what are you looking at?
a stratus cloud
How do temperature and air pressure change as you go higher up in the troposphere?
Snow and freezing rain both fall when it's cold outside, but they act very differently when they hit the ground. Why does freezing rain turn into a dangerous sheet of ice, while snow just piles up as a soft powder?
Snow stays frozen the whole way down, but freezing rain is made of water that melts in a warm layer of air and then flash-freezes the second it hits the freezing-cold ground
What is it called when a big, uncontrollable fire burns down forests and grass
A wildfire
Why does a warm front usually bring light, continuous rain or drizzle that lasts all day, instead of a quick, heavy thunderstorm?
Warm fronts are really lazy movers. Because they slide gradually up and over the cold air (instead of plowing through it like a cold front), they create wide, flat stratus clouds that squeeze out light rain over a huge area for hours.
You’re hanging out outside, and suddenly these massive, dark, anvil-shaped clouds roll in, and it starts pouring rain and thundering. What clouds are ruining your day?
a cumulonimbus cloud
Which layer hangs out just above us and has the special ozone layer that protects us from harmful UV rays?
The Stratosphere
Imagine a summer day is super hot and humid, but suddenly a giant thunderstorm rolls in and dumps a bunch of jagged, icy balls instead of rain. What kind of extreme weather am I experiencing?
its hail
What kind of natural disaster happens when it doesn't rain for months and all the dirt turns super dry and dusty?
A drought
If a cold front is chasing a warm front, what special type of weather boundary do they form when they catch up to each other?
They form an occluded front! It happens when the super-fast cold front catches up to the warm front, trapping the warm air up in the sky. It usually brings a messy mix of rain and wind. To see what the fronts are doing across the whole country right now, check out the NOAA Weather Prediction Center.
Look way, way up, like, up to 6,000 meters or higher! What are those thin, wispy, hair-like clouds made entirely of ice crystals?
a cirrus cloud
Which layer burns up shooting stars, and where do the International Space Station and satellites orbit?
Meteors, space rocks, burn up in the Mesosphere
Sometimes it looks like it's snowing, but when the flakes hit your jacket, they bounce off and sound like tiny bits of hard gravel. What exactly is this weird in-between weather called, and how does it form?
its called sleet
True or False: A hurricane, a cyclone, and a typhoon are basically the exact same storm, just named based on where in the world they happen.
True
On a weather map, a cold front has triangles and a warm front has half-circles. If both are moving toward North Raleigh, NC, how will the air pressure change right as they pass through?
Sometimes you look up and see a patchy, rippled sheet of clouds that looks like the scales of a fish or a giant checkerboard. What specific, medium-altitude cloud is making the sky look like a piece of graph paper?
a Altocumulus cloud
What is the very last layer called before our atmosphere totally disappears into the vacuum of outer space?
The Exosphere
When supercooled water droplets in freezing fog or drizzle touch freezing-cold surfaces like trees, powerlines, or airplane wings, they instantly freeze into a heavy, crusty white ice. What is the meteorological name for this specific type of precipitation?
This is called rime