Weather for Kids What is weather and how does it work

weather for kids today we're talking all about the weather there's good chance that when you woke up this morning you probably checked the weather that is because it is important to know when to wear heavy coat and snow boots and when to put on swimming suit you would not wear coat in the heat or swimming suit in the cold so learning about what weather is and how to predict it is pretty useful information so what is weather exactly weather describes what it is like outside at any given time of day it can be hot or cold wet or dry clear or cloudy or calm or stormy most of the time it is at least few of these things all at once these changes in weather are because of layer of gases that surround the earth called the atmosphere the atmosphere also acts as shield protecting life and helping keep our planet at safe temperature weather also depends on place's distance from the equator which is an imaginary line that separates the northern and southern halves of the earth the closer place is to the equator the warmer it will be in fact where you live on the planet has huge impact on what weather you will see for example the weather near the ocean is often lot different than the weather near tall mountain range here is an interesting fact meteorologist is person who studies and predicts the weather you might have even seen meteorologist sometime on the news they are the people who stand in front of weather map and give forecasts or educated predictions of what the weather will be like during the week in the area where you live cool right now that we have talked about what weather is let's talk about the different types of weather and how each are measured hot or cold first off weather can be hot or cold or somewhere in between the way that this hotness or coldness is measured is by temperature temperature is based on the motion of energy and the speed of gas molecules in the air if the gas molecules are moving faster the temperature will get higher meaning that the weather gets hotter can you guess what is used to determine temperature that is right it is tool called thermometer and it measures temperature in units called degrees wet or dry have you ever been near the ocean what about desert the air around you can feel different depending on where you are in the world this difference is called humidity which tells us the amount of water vapor in the air even though you cannot see this water you can definitely feel it the higher the humidity the more moisture or water vapor there is in the air here is another interesting fact if there is too much water vapor it will begin to rain humidity is measured by tool called hygrometer clear or cloudy did you know that air pressure affects whether or not it is clear or cloudy day remember when we talked about the atmosphere well air pressure is the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on the earth which is why it is also sometimes called atmospheric pressure like our old friend humidity air pressure affects all parts of the weather each day how is air pressure measured you ask buy tool called barometer there are two types of air pressure high and low high pressure usually means that the weather will be fair and sunny low pressure on the other hand brings clouds rain or snow have you ever wondered what causes thunderstorms pocket of strong low pressure you can literally feel it in the air calm or stormy when you find yourself stuck in storm you might notice that wind is almost always involved wind is air moving from higher pressure areas to lower pressure areas wind speed is also affected by the heating of the earth's surface and the rotation of the earth the speed of wind can also be changed by the landforms around it stuff like mountains bodies of water and vegetation which is why sometimes wind can start as gentle breeze and then change into super strong gust the airspeed of wind is measured by device called anemometer now that is fascinating fact you can share with friend are you ready to review what we have learned let's go true or false paleontologist studies and predicts the weather false meteorologist studies and predicts the weather paleontologist studies fossils fill in the blank blank tells us how much water vapor is in the air at given time humidity what is the name of the protective layer of gases that surround the earth the atmosphere true or false barometer measures air pressure true name one type of weather that we discussed today you're right hot or cold wet or dry clear or cloudy or calm or stormy nice job weather wonders no matter if you live near the equator or on top of tall mountain you will always be surrounded by weather the next time you are outside try to see if you can figure out exactly what the weather is like using all the information you have learned today hope you had fun learning with us visit us at learnbright.org for thousands of free resources and turnkey solutions for teachers and homeschoolers