ð April 30 - Homework: Put on your meteorologist hat ... find a storm on your own
You don’t need a smartphone or computer to know where a storm is on a weather map. Just step outside and stand with your back to the wind. Stick your left hand out, and you are pointing in the general direction of where the storm is– great work thanks to your human superpowers!
Why is it so simple? Earlier in AccuWeather School (when we exploded an egg in a bottle), we learned that winds always want to blow from high pressure systems (and nice weather) to storms (known as low pressure systems) in a counterclockwise fashion– so a storm will generally be to your left when wind is hitting your back (our friends in the Southern Hemisphere have to look to their right to see where a storm is since air flows in the opposite direction).
This trick may not work well if there is only a light breeze. When high pressure is providing nice weather and storms are far away, light winds can blow in different directions.
â¹ï¸âï¸ April 30 - Gym class: Crush a can with ocean-like strength
For most of you reading this, there is 14.7 pounds per square inch of pressure from the air pushing on you. Don’t feel it? That’s because your body is pushing back with the same force. However, if you took a very deep dive into the ocean (not recommended), the water pressure would be strong enough to break your bones.
Since we don’t want to see anyone break their bones, here’s one experiment demonstrating how air pressure can crush a can. You must have an adult help you with this experiment, but it is easy to do with an empty soda can, water, ice, tongs, potholder, and a stove.
When AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls puts the hot can in the ice water, the steam inside the can quickly cools and condenses into water. That lowers the pressure inside the can so much that the air pressure outside crushes it.
ð¬ April 28 - Weather Lab: A dam that holds back cold air?
You may not know it, but many of you may have seen something that acts like a dam for cold air before. It’s not the type of dam that we’ve talked about before – it’s something that has been around since the Ice Age. What are we talking about?
Mountains!
There are times when cold air gets stuck up against the side of a mountain range, such as the east side of the Appalachian and Rocky mountains in the United States.
Time to pull out your dictionary of meteorology terms – this is called cold air damming, and the key to this dam is that cold air is denser than warm air. What does that mean? Let’s find out with this activity you can do at home (just get help from an adult as hot water is involved):
In the wintertime, cold air damming can lead to a snow day for some lucky kids – unless warm air flows over the cold air like in the activity above. If that happens, there can be ice instead of snow, and that’s not fun when you want to make a snowman!
ðApril 28 - AP class: Outsmart Jeopardy! contestants
We will start this class with a pop-quiz – what is the red weather feature shown in the graphic below?
If you said a warm front, you would have outsmarted three Jeopardy! contestants during a 2015 episode! During that game, contestants were shown a similar graphic and none of them knew the answer, an occasion known as a "triple stumper."
Cold fronts are one of the most recognized features on a weather map, but warm fronts can be on weather maps just as often.
So what is a warm front? A warm front marks the edge of cold air leaving an area with warmer air to follow. On the other hand, a cold front marks the edge of colder air sweeping in and replacing warmer air ahead of it.
Stay tuned for Final Jeopardy!
ð April 23 - Pop quiz! Can you get a sunburn on a cool, sunny April day?
If you answered no, would you have said yes if the month was August and not April?
Actually, you can get a sunburn on a cool, sunny day in both April and August. The outside air temperature has nothing to do with getting a sunburn. It is more about what month it is and how strong the sun is.
The strength of the sun’s rays reaching you are as strong this time of year as they are in mid- to late-August – meaning that you are just as easy to get a sunburn now as later in the summer.
“It is possible to get a sunburn on a sunny day with a temperature of 40 F (4 C) as well as a sunny day with a temperature of 80 F (27 C),” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
The above pop quiz is more for those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s fall for our friends south of the equator. They need to worry about getting a sunburn on a cool, sunny spring day in October.
ð April 23 - Story Time: This upside down cloud looks like a cow’s udder
You know how clouds form, right? Most clouds form when air rises, cools and condenses. However, there is one cloud that wants to be different and form backwards – that’s mammatus clouds, and they look like upside-down clouds too (check it out below)!
A close-up view of the mammatus clouds over Lubbock, Texas, during the summer of 2019. (Instagram/jtphil32)
“Mammatus clouds develop when air sinks,” AccuWeather Meteorologist and Digital Journalist Brian Lada explains. “The sinking air must be cooler than the air around it and have a high liquid water or ice content.”
Since the air is sinking (moving from up high in the sky to the ground), you can see why the clouds bubble downward – opposite of puffy cumulus or thunderstorm clouds that tower high in the sky! The unique look of mammatus clouds is how they got their name – do you agree that they resemble cows' udders?
Mammatus clouds are typically seen underneath a thunderstorm’s anvil (its top). Many people think that mammatus clouds mean a tornado is approaching. More often than not, it’s the opposite – these clouds form when a thunderstorm is weakening.
ð¨ April 20 - Art Class: The case of the disappearing meteorologist
If you watch your favorite meteorologist on TV every day, you may notice that they never wear green. Why is that? AccuWeather On-Air Meteorologist Geoff Cornish solves this mystery, and it’s not as simple as that meteorologists hate the color green!
ð¬ April 16 – Weather Lab: Time to make rain gauges
Measuring snowfall is as easy as sticking a ruler into the ground – but the same can’t be done with rain. Instead, meteorologists use a rain gauge to record how much rain has fallen.
You can make your own rain gauge at home with a clear cylinder, masking tape, ruler, and pen. If you are having trouble finding a clear cylinder, like the ice tea pitcher shown in the video below, ask your parents if they wouldn’t mind cutting a soda or water bottle in half. As long as they are okay with it, that works too!
Once you build the rain gauge, watch for any rain in the forecast and record how much falls. Be sure to put something around the rain gauge to provide it support so it doesn’t get knocked over by any wind.
ð April 16 – Homework: Ahh, the smell of rain ... but what are you actually smelling?
For your homework this weekend – if it rains in your area, go outside and take a deep breath through your nose. Does it smell nice? So many people like that smell that there are rain-scented laundry detergents and candles. It may surprise you that you aren’t really smelling raindrops. You are actually getting a whiff of dirt, worms and other things in the ground.
Here’s another big word to impress your parents and teachers with – petrichor. That’s the scent that fills the air as raindrops hit the ground. It’s caused by oils from plants, mainly leaves, that settle onto soils or pavement over time. The more time that passes between rain events, the more the oil will build up and the stronger the scent.
Don’t forget when you head outside to smell the rain, grab an umbrella or raincoat or you’ll get soaked!
ð April 13 - Study Hall: Why are there so many earthworms after it rains?
Have you ever taken a walk after a soaking rainfall and had to avoid stepping on earthworms? Earthworms live in the dirt, so why do they come out of the ground after it rains?
This April 10, 1912, file photo shows the liner Titanic as it leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage. (AP photo)
Maltin said that “it was a perfect storm of calm” that played a role in the sinking of the Titanic. Listen below to learn more about that night and how the weather system that impacted the Titanic also played a role at the first baseball game ever played in Fenway Park:
ð¬ April 9 - Weather Lab: Time to spin up tornadoes at home
A lot of ingredients go into a real tornado forming, but making one at home is simple with just a few items. You will need water and two empty soda bottles that are the same size, plus food coloring and glitter if you want to have extra fun with this experiment. To make the two soda bottles hold together, ask an adult to grab a large nail and hammer (or a drill with a half-inch drill bit will work) and duct tape.
ð April 9 – Homework: Ready, set, go – tornado shelter drill
The time to know what to do if a tornado threatens your home is not when the AccuWeather app says a tornado is coming, but right now. For your homework, practice with your family (pets included!) going to your tornado shelter.
Go to the lowest floor of your home or building if you don’t have a basement. Don’t forget that mobile homes, along with vehicles, are not safe places to be during a tornado.
(AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
Regardless of where your tornado shelter will be, be sure to put a flashlight, bottled water, closed-toed shoes and a blanket there when a tornado watch is issued. The blanket can shield you from flying debris. Shoes will protect your feet if you have to walk through any damage.
ð April 6 - Show & Tell: Human-sized tornado machine!
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck doesn’t have to leave his home to see a tornado – he just goes down to his basement and turns on his tornado machine!
How does Bob’s tornado compare to a real one? Many real tornadoes can grow up to a mile wide (the record widest is 2.6 miles) and these enormous twisters can damage or destroy many things in their paths. The one you see in the machine is about an inch wide and doesn’t create a mess in Bob’s basement – Mrs. Smerbeck is happy about that!
ð¨ April 6 - Art Class: Weather has pirate hooks, and it’s no laughing matter
Have you ever dressed up like a pirate for Halloween and had a hook on your hand? While that was fun, it is no laughing matter when you see a pirate’s hook on weather radar.
A tornado-producing thunderstorm near Birmingham, Alabama, on April 27, 2011. (Image/GR2Analyst)
Look at the image above – it definitely looks like a hook, right? Meteorologists don’t call that a pirate’s hook, but a hook echo – a clear sign on radar that a tornado is on the ground.
Powerful thunderstorms that produce a tornado need warm, moist air to survive, and you can see that air rushing into the thunderstorm on radar – that’s the gap in the colors just above the tornado. Rain wrapping around the back of the thunderstorm to the tornado completes the hook.
There are times when the radar sees more than rain with a tornado. It can also tell if the tornado has debris spinning around it after it struck trees and buildings – that’s a worrisome sight for meteorologists.
Additional experiments and reporting by Jason Nicholls.
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News / AccuWeather Ready
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 12-15
By Kristina Pydynowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Jun 27, 2021 11:28 AM EDT
ð April 30 - Homework: Put on your meteorologist hat ... find a storm on your own
You don’t need a smartphone or computer to know where a storm is on a weather map. Just step outside and stand with your back to the wind. Stick your left hand out, and you are pointing in the general direction of where the storm is – great work thanks to your human superpowers!
Why is it so simple? Earlier in AccuWeather School (when we exploded an egg in a bottle), we learned that winds always want to blow from high pressure systems (and nice weather) to storms (known as low pressure systems) in a counterclockwise fashion – so a storm will generally be to your left when wind is hitting your back (our friends in the Southern Hemisphere have to look to their right to see where a storm is since air flows in the opposite direction).
This trick may not work well if there is only a light breeze. When high pressure is providing nice weather and storms are far away, light winds can blow in different directions.
â¹ï¸âï¸ April 30 - Gym class: Crush a can with ocean-like strength
For most of you reading this, there is 14.7 pounds per square inch of pressure from the air pushing on you. Don’t feel it? That’s because your body is pushing back with the same force. However, if you took a very deep dive into the ocean (not recommended), the water pressure would be strong enough to break your bones.
Since we don’t want to see anyone break their bones, here’s one experiment demonstrating how air pressure can crush a can. You must have an adult help you with this experiment, but it is easy to do with an empty soda can, water, ice, tongs, potholder, and a stove.
When AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls puts the hot can in the ice water, the steam inside the can quickly cools and condenses into water. That lowers the pressure inside the can so much that the air pressure outside crushes it.
ð¬ April 28 - Weather Lab: A dam that holds back cold air?
You may not know it, but many of you may have seen something that acts like a dam for cold air before. It’s not the type of dam that we’ve talked about before – it’s something that has been around since the Ice Age. What are we talking about?
Mountains!
There are times when cold air gets stuck up against the side of a mountain range, such as the east side of the Appalachian and Rocky mountains in the United States.
Time to pull out your dictionary of meteorology terms – this is called cold air damming, and the key to this dam is that cold air is denser than warm air. What does that mean? Let’s find out with this activity you can do at home (just get help from an adult as hot water is involved):
In the wintertime, cold air damming can lead to a snow day for some lucky kids – unless warm air flows over the cold air like in the activity above. If that happens, there can be ice instead of snow, and that’s not fun when you want to make a snowman!
ðApril 28 - AP class: Outsmart Jeopardy! contestants
We will start this class with a pop-quiz – what is the red weather feature shown in the graphic below?
If you said a warm front, you would have outsmarted three Jeopardy! contestants during a 2015 episode! During that game, contestants were shown a similar graphic and none of them knew the answer, an occasion known as a "triple stumper."
Cold fronts are one of the most recognized features on a weather map, but warm fronts can be on weather maps just as often.
So what is a warm front? A warm front marks the edge of cold air leaving an area with warmer air to follow. On the other hand, a cold front marks the edge of colder air sweeping in and replacing warmer air ahead of it.
Stay tuned for Final Jeopardy!
ð April 23 - Pop quiz! Can you get a sunburn on a cool, sunny April day?
If you answered no, would you have said yes if the month was August and not April?
Actually, you can get a sunburn on a cool, sunny day in both April and August. The outside air temperature has nothing to do with getting a sunburn. It is more about what month it is and how strong the sun is.
The strength of the sun’s rays reaching you are as strong this time of year as they are in mid- to late-August – meaning that you are just as easy to get a sunburn now as later in the summer.
“It is possible to get a sunburn on a sunny day with a temperature of 40 F (4 C) as well as a sunny day with a temperature of 80 F (27 C),” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
It’s even possible to get sunburnt in the winter, especially at high elevations!
The above pop quiz is more for those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s fall for our friends south of the equator. They need to worry about getting a sunburn on a cool, sunny spring day in October.
ð April 23 - Story Time: This upside down cloud looks like a cow’s udder
You know how clouds form, right? Most clouds form when air rises, cools and condenses. However, there is one cloud that wants to be different and form backwards – that’s mammatus clouds, and they look like upside-down clouds too (check it out below)!
A close-up view of the mammatus clouds over Lubbock, Texas, during the summer of 2019. (Instagram/jtphil32)
“Mammatus clouds develop when air sinks,” AccuWeather Meteorologist and Digital Journalist Brian Lada explains. “The sinking air must be cooler than the air around it and have a high liquid water or ice content.”
Since the air is sinking (moving from up high in the sky to the ground), you can see why the clouds bubble downward – opposite of puffy cumulus or thunderstorm clouds that tower high in the sky! The unique look of mammatus clouds is how they got their name – do you agree that they resemble cows' udders?
Mammatus clouds are typically seen underneath a thunderstorm’s anvil (its top). Many people think that mammatus clouds mean a tornado is approaching. More often than not, it’s the opposite – these clouds form when a thunderstorm is weakening.
ð¨ April 20 - Art Class: The case of the disappearing meteorologist
If you watch your favorite meteorologist on TV every day, you may notice that they never wear green. Why is that? AccuWeather On-Air Meteorologist Geoff Cornish solves this mystery, and it’s not as simple as that meteorologists hate the color green!
“Wait a minute, I’ve seen some meteorologists on the AccuWeather Television Network wearing green!” – is that what you are thinking? While meteorologists stand in front of a green screen at most television stations, the main studio at AccuWeather is set up differently:
ð¬ April 16 – Weather Lab: Time to make rain gauges
Measuring snowfall is as easy as sticking a ruler into the ground – but the same can’t be done with rain. Instead, meteorologists use a rain gauge to record how much rain has fallen.
You can make your own rain gauge at home with a clear cylinder, masking tape, ruler, and pen. If you are having trouble finding a clear cylinder, like the ice tea pitcher shown in the video below, ask your parents if they wouldn’t mind cutting a soda or water bottle in half. As long as they are okay with it, that works too!
Once you build the rain gauge, watch for any rain in the forecast and record how much falls. Be sure to put something around the rain gauge to provide it support so it doesn’t get knocked over by any wind.
ð April 16 – Homework: Ahh, the smell of rain ... but what are you actually smelling?
For your homework this weekend – if it rains in your area, go outside and take a deep breath through your nose. Does it smell nice? So many people like that smell that there are rain-scented laundry detergents and candles. It may surprise you that you aren’t really smelling raindrops. You are actually getting a whiff of dirt, worms and other things in the ground.
Here’s another big word to impress your parents and teachers with – petrichor. That’s the scent that fills the air as raindrops hit the ground. It’s caused by oils from plants, mainly leaves, that settle onto soils or pavement over time. The more time that passes between rain events, the more the oil will build up and the stronger the scent.
Don’t forget when you head outside to smell the rain, grab an umbrella or raincoat or you’ll get soaked!
ð April 13 - Study Hall: Why are there so many earthworms after it rains?
Have you ever taken a walk after a soaking rainfall and had to avoid stepping on earthworms? Earthworms live in the dirt, so why do they come out of the ground after it rains?
If the ground gets too soggy with rain water, the earthworms will drown and die. Researchers from Penn State University say that the worms come out of the ground to get more oxygen.
As more earthworms come out of the ground, the more the air will smell like them. If someone says to you, “Ahh, the smell of rain is so nice,” be sure to tell them that they are just catching a whiff of dirt, worms or whatever the raindrop hits on the ground.
(Photo/ John Shepard/iStock /Getty Images Plus)
ð April 13 – History Class: ‘Perfect storm of calm’ played role in sinking of the Titanic
The Titanic sank in the frigid waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean during the early morning hours on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg.
While we have discussed much about clouds lately, there was not a cloud in the sky that fateful night. Even the moon was absent. The stars, however, were shining so brightly that historian and Titanic expert Tim Maltin told AccuWeather that people on the Titanic could see what time it was on their watches!
This April 10, 1912, file photo shows the liner Titanic as it leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage. (AP photo)
Maltin said that “it was a perfect storm of calm” that played a role in the sinking of the Titanic. Listen below to learn more about that night and how the weather system that impacted the Titanic also played a role at the first baseball game ever played in Fenway Park:
ð¬ April 9 - Weather Lab: Time to spin up tornadoes at home
A lot of ingredients go into a real tornado forming, but making one at home is simple with just a few items. You will need water and two empty soda bottles that are the same size, plus food coloring and glitter if you want to have extra fun with this experiment. To make the two soda bottles hold together, ask an adult to grab a large nail and hammer (or a drill with a half-inch drill bit will work) and duct tape.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls shows us how to put everything together and spin up our own tornado in the video below!
ð April 9 – Homework: Ready, set, go – tornado shelter drill
The time to know what to do if a tornado threatens your home is not when the AccuWeather app says a tornado is coming, but right now. For your homework, practice with your family (pets included!) going to your tornado shelter.
“The basement [in places that are] away from windows, an interior stairwell or interior bathroom,” AccuWeather Meteorologist and Emergency Preparedness Specialist Becky DePodwin said for the best locations to shelter during a tornado. Some people believe that the southwest corner of a basement is the safest spot – that is a myth. Seeking shelter in a bathtub is a good option.
Go to the lowest floor of your home or building if you don’t have a basement. Don’t forget that mobile homes, along with vehicles, are not safe places to be during a tornado.
(AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)
Regardless of where your tornado shelter will be, be sure to put a flashlight, bottled water, closed-toed shoes and a blanket there when a tornado watch is issued. The blanket can shield you from flying debris. Shoes will protect your feet if you have to walk through any damage.
ð April 6 - Show & Tell: Human-sized tornado machine!
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck doesn’t have to leave his home to see a tornado – he just goes down to his basement and turns on his tornado machine!
Bob built the machine to look at how tornadoes form. This isn’t the simple experiment we did earlier to spin up a tornado with soda bottles and water. Bob spent three months making this machine – using a hair dryer, pipes, fan and a vaporizer.
How does Bob’s tornado compare to a real one? Many real tornadoes can grow up to a mile wide (the record widest is 2.6 miles) and these enormous twisters can damage or destroy many things in their paths. The one you see in the machine is about an inch wide and doesn’t create a mess in Bob’s basement – Mrs. Smerbeck is happy about that!
ð¨ April 6 - Art Class: Weather has pirate hooks, and it’s no laughing matter
Have you ever dressed up like a pirate for Halloween and had a hook on your hand? While that was fun, it is no laughing matter when you see a pirate’s hook on weather radar.
A tornado-producing thunderstorm near Birmingham, Alabama, on April 27, 2011. (Image/GR2Analyst)
Look at the image above – it definitely looks like a hook, right? Meteorologists don’t call that a pirate’s hook, but a hook echo – a clear sign on radar that a tornado is on the ground.
Powerful thunderstorms that produce a tornado need warm, moist air to survive, and you can see that air rushing into the thunderstorm on radar – that’s the gap in the colors just above the tornado. Rain wrapping around the back of the thunderstorm to the tornado completes the hook.
There are times when the radar sees more than rain with a tornado. It can also tell if the tornado has debris spinning around it after it struck trees and buildings – that’s a worrisome sight for meteorologists.
Additional experiments and reporting by Jason Nicholls.
Previously:
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 8-11
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 4-7
AccuWeather School Spring Semester: Weeks 1-3
AccuWeather School Winter Break
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 14-15
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 12-13
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 10-11
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 8-9
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 6-7
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 4-5
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Weeks 2-3
AccuWeather School Fall Semester: Week 1
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 13
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 12
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 11
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 10
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 9
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 8
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 7
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 6
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 5
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 4
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 3
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 2
AccuWeather Summer Camp: Week 1
AccuWeather School: Week 1
AccuWeather School: Week 2
AccuWeather School: Week 3
AccuWeather School: Week 4
AccuWeather School: Week 5
AccuWeather School: Week 6
AccuWeather School: Week 7
AccuWeather School: Week 8
AccuWeather School: Week 9