WEATHER & RAIN
This is the short-term, daily condition of the atmosphere, such as sunny, cloudy, or rainy today.
Answer: What is Weather?
The apparent bending of Earth's global winds to the right in the North and to the left in the South, caused by planetary rotation.
Answer: What is the Coriolis effect?
This climate region receives less than 10 inches of rain per year and features very hot days and cool or cold nights.
Answer: What is a Desert (Dry climate)?
The difference between these two: one is molten rock trapped underground in the mantle, while the other is molten rock that erupts onto Earth's surface.
Answer: What are Magma (underground) and Lava (on the surface)?
If ground tremors suddenly start while you are inside a building, you must perform these three safety actions.
Answer: What are Drop, Cover, and Hold On?
This is the average weather pattern of a place recorded over a long period of time (many years).
Answer: What is Climate?
These steady winds blow from east to west near the equator (0–30) and were famously used by sailing merchants.
Answer: What are the Trade Winds?
A dry, semiarid grassland with short grass, around 16 inches of rain, and almost no trees (such as the US Great Plains or Mongolia).
Answer: What is a Steppe (or Semiarid climate)?
The underground point where rock snaps to start an earthquake, versus the point directly above it on the Earth's surface.
Answer: What are the Focus (underground) and Epicenter (surface)?
During an El Niño climate cycle, the Pacific waters turn warmer than normal, which brings this severe problem to Honduras and Central America.
Answer: What is Drought (little rain)?
This type of precipitation occurs when the sun heats moist ground, warm air rises quickly, and afternoon rainstorms form (common in the Amazon and Central America).
Answer: What is Convectional precipitation?
Middle-latitude winds (30–60) that blow from west to east, moving weather systems and storms across North America and Europe.
Answer: What are the Westerlies?
A cold, treeless high-latitude biome where the ground stays permanently frozen all year.
Answer: What is the Tundra (with permafrost)?
This instrument records earthquake shockwaves, and this numerical scale rates a quake's total released energy.
Answer: What are a Seismograph and the Richter Scale?
During a La Niña climate cycle, stronger trade winds and cold Pacific waters bring this severe weather risk to Honduras and Central America.
Answer: What are Heavy rains and Floods (and Atlantic hurricanes)?
This type of precipitation happens when a cold, dense air mass collides with a warm air mass, forcing the warm air up and bringing prolonged rain or winter storms.
Answer: What is Frontal precipitation?
For every 1,000 feet you climb up a mountain, the temperature drops by approximately this amount.
Answer: What is 3.5°F?
A mid-latitude climate known for hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters, famous for growing olives, citrus fruits, and grapes.
Answer: What is a Mediterranean climate?
The plate boundary where two plates crash into one another, creating massive mountain ranges like the Himalayas or causing subduction.
Answer: What is a Convergent boundary?
If you are visiting a Pacific coastal town and feel a strong earthquake, this is the immediate life-saving action you must take to survive a possible tsunami.
Answer: What is moving immediately inland and to high ground
Rain caused when mountains force moist air upward on the windward side, leaving a dry area called a rain shadow on the leeward side.
Answer: What is Orographic precipitation?
This massive warm ocean current moves from the Gulf toward Western Europe, keeping Europe noticeably warmer than parts of Canada at the same latitude.
Answer: What is the Gulf Stream (or North Atlantic Drift)?
This vast evergreen coniferous forest region grows in the subarctic high latitudes with short summers and long, freezing winters.
Answer: What is the Taiga (or Subarctic forest)?
A horseshoe-shaped perimeter surrounding the Pacific Ocean where 8 tectonic plates meet, producing 95% of major quakes and most active volcanoes.
Answer: What is the Pacific Ring of Fire?
Despite their destructive hazards, name two major natural benefits volcanic activity provides to human civilizations.
Answer: What are fertile soil (for farming) and clean geothermal energy (electricity/heat)?