Science 10
Weather Dynamics Questions
1. Weather is all about what?
2. What are the for ways in which energy is transferred?
3. a) List some examples of electromagnetic radiation.
b) Name one example of this type of energy the Sun does not make.
4. Can electromagnetic energy pass through a vacuum?
5. a) Heat travelling through a solid because of adjacent particles bumping into each other is called ___.
b) What if the transmitting material is a liquid or a gas?
6. Using your hand and a lightbulb, describe the four ways in which heat is transferred.
7. If 100 units of Sun energy reach the Earth, state:
a) what materials reflect some of it
b) what materials absorb some of it
c) how much is reflected
d) how much is absorbed.
8. a) In general, does the Earth receive much of the Sun's energy?
b) What is the average temperature on Earth?
9. a) During our summer, are we titled toward or away from the Earth?
b) What are points of evidence for your answer?
10. In general, why does air move?
11. Sketch a convection current. Show areas of hot and cool air.
12. In general, what does the Coriolis Effect do to the motion of winds?
13. The term "prevailing" means what?
14. a) There are how many jet streams? (How many do we see on our weather forecasts?)
b) Jet streams form between adjacent ___.
15. What are the three main processes in operation in the water cycle?
16. a) In general, where do we find warm surface ocean currents?
b) What do ocean currents do to climate?
c) What do they do for food chains?
17. Make four simple sketches showing where the ways in which clouds are formed.
18. Name the type of cloud: a) lumpy b) medium altitude c) rain-making d) flat e) high altitude
19. What is a weather system?
20. A weather date! Match up these terms: wet, dry, cold, warm, and continental, polar, coastal, tropical. Put the first four in one column and the other four in a second column beside the first. Then draw lines joining words that belong together.
21. Why is mid-latitude weather so complicated?
22. Define: front.
23. Which situation creates a thunderstorm, cool air pushing under warm air or warm air climbing up over cool air?
24. Which pressure system usually brings bad weather?
25. a) Does cool air descending create a high or low pressure area?
b) As the falling air reaches the surface and flows outward, the Coriolis Effect swirls it in what direction?
26. What local (regional) weather forms from:
a) sun heating the ground
b) warm shoreline next to a cooler ocean
c) warm ocean next to cooler shoreline
d) wind blowing over a lake and onto cold ground
e) air flowing down the side of a mountain and being compressed at the bottom
27. Weather forecasts for what time spans are difficult to make?
28. a) Look up and define: meteorologist
b) What technology provides meteorologists with the "big" weather picture?
29. Small weather stations on the ground supply data about what?
30. What action inside a thunderstorm creates the static charges resulting in the lightning?
31. Why are tornados associated with severe thunderstorms?
32. What are the two actions of a tornado when it encounters a house for example?
33. Match El Nino or La Nina with:
a) ocean heating in the eastern Pacific
b) warmer winters for us
c) damage to the Peruvian fishing industry
d) cooler water in the eastern Pacific
d) reduced upwelling off the coast of Peru
e) cooler winter for us
34. Name two results of global warming.
35. Describe the technology that:
a) collects drinking water from coastal fog
b) encourages the formation of rain
c) reduces the formation of hailstones.