The Water Cycle
The main source of energy that drives the entire water cycle.
What is the Sun?
The condition of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, such as a rainy afternoon in Miami.
What is weather?
The most common liquid form of precipitation that falls when cloud droplets grow too heavy.
What is rain?
The reason why every family should design an emergency preparedness plan before severe weather happens.
What is to stay safe and know what to do?
A giant spark of electricity that jumps between a cloud and the ground during a severe storm.
What is lightning?
The process where liquid water turns into an invisible gas (water vapor) using heat from the Sun.
What is evaporation?
The long-term average of weather patterns in a region over a period of 30 years or more.
What is climate?
A solid form of precipitation consisting of delicate, six-sided ice crystals that form when water vapor freezes directly in a cloud.
What is snow?
A critical kit item containing water, non-perishable food, flashlights, and batteries to help a family survive for at least three days.
What is a disaster supply kit (or bug-out bag)?
The sound created when lightning instantly heats the air around it, causing the air to rapidly expand and vibrate.
The sound created when lightning instantly heats the air around it, causing the air to rapidly expand and vibrate.
The process where water vapor cools down and changes back into liquid water droplets, forming clouds.
What is condensation?
The measure of the amount of moisture or water vapor present in the air.
What is humidity?
Raindrops that freeze into small, translucent pellets of ice as they fall through a layer of freezing air near the ground.
What is sleet?
This type of official weather alert means severe weather is currently happening or about to happen nearby, and you should take shelter immediately.
What is a warning (e.g., Tornado Warning)?
A violent, spinning funnel of air that extends down from a severe thunderstorm cloud all the way to the ground.
What is a tornado?
This massive body of water covers about 3/4 of Earth's surface and connects all water reservoirs through evaporation and precipitation.
What is the ocean?
This atmospheric measurement describes the weight of the air pressing down on Earth's surface, which drops as you go up a mountain.
What is air pressure (or barometric pressure)?
Large, layered lumps of ice created during severe thunderstorms when powerful wind updrafts push ice pellets back up into freezing clouds over and over.
What is hail?
The safest room to go to inside a home during a severe thunderstorm or tornado.
What is an interior room with no windows (like a closet or bathroom)?
Wind is created when air moves naturally from areas of this pressure to areas of low pressure.
What is high pressure?
The two main ways precipitation reaches the ground and either soaks in as groundwater or flows over land as surface runoff.
What are absorption (infiltration) and runoff?
A massive, swirling tropical storm system with high winds and heavy rain that forms over warm ocean waters.
What is a hurricane?
This state of matter describes precipitation like snow, hail, and sleet, differentiating them from rain.
What is a solid?
A dynamic emergency procedure that involves safely leaving an area ahead of a massive natural disaster like a Category 5 hurricane.
What is an evacuation?
This type of official weather alert means that atmospheric conditions are favorable for a severe storm or tornado to develop, though it hasn't formed yet.
What is a watch (e.g., Tornado Watch)?