By: RHEANNON , AMELIA , and MOSIAYAH
Dedicated to our wonderful teachers Ms. Bull, Mr. Khalsa, and ms. gravina
IntroductIon.........................................pg 1 Blizzards................................................pg 2 hurricanes............................................pg 8 lightning.................................................pg 16 conclusion.........................................pg 23 glossary..............................................pg 24 Bibliography.....................................pg 25
When everyday weather becomes severe, our world becomes a battlefield between different forces. Wild storms can be devastating to the surface of the earth and it’s inhabitants. Three of these major storms are blizzards, hurricanes and lightning storms. Read to find out about these three forces and the incredible but dangerous things they can do.
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Imagine you are inside. It is warm and cozy, and you have hot chocolate with some marshmallows. Though outside the wind is whirling at 35 miles per an hour and it is below freezing. Brrrrrrrrrrr. You can’t even see a 1/4 mile ahead of you. Good thing you are in the comfort of your home because outside a blizzard is happening!
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The main ingredient for a blizzard is snow. How was that snow created in the first place? Well, water vapor collects in a cloud. If that cloud hits a cold front, the vapor will freeze and the weight will drag it down. When the cloud reaches its saturation point and can no longer bear the heavy moisture, the vapor will fall to the ground as snow.
TEMPeraTUREs for a blizzard
32째 F
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When snow clouds get caught in a cold front with high wind speeds, snow changes from everyday weather to an extreme blizzard! A cold front is when a cold air mass meets and replaces a warm air mass.
warm air
COLD AIR
COLD FRONT
There are two ways blizzards can happen. One way is when warm air and cold air mix and a storm cloud gets caught up in a tangle. The second way is if a storm cloud gets caught in an updraft on a mountainside and mixes with high speed wind. 5
Blizzards can be beautiful and fun but they can also be dangerous! If you get caught in a white out, you could get lost in your own backyard without even knowing it. If it is below 5 degrees fahrenheit and you are outside, you could be in risk of getting frost bite or hypothermia (hi-po-ther-me-a). Also if there is a lot of snow, you could get caught in your house or even your car. Stay safe and be careful
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1. The snowiest city is the United States is Rochester, New York! 2. In Rochester, the average snowfall is 90 inches! 3. The average snowflake has 200 ice crystals in it! 4. You don't need it to snow in order for a blizzard because the winds can take the snow from the ground!!!
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STOP
STOP
OP ST You might think you know, but do you really know what a hurricane is? A hurricane is a doughnut shaped storm of swirling and spinning air. It starts at sea and speeds its way towards land. The wind can go as fast as 500 miles per hour. 9
Hurricanes always
Only 40% of hurricanes
form over the ocean.
make it to land and the other
Because the
60% die at sea. Immediately
weather is warmest
after a hurricane hits land it
near the equator,
starts to die because it loses
and the water is
water vapor and that is what
always warm there,
gives the hurricanes its
many hurricanes
energy. It is almost as if
form near the
water vapor is a hurricane’s
equator. However,
food! Hurricanes do more
some form in other
damage on the coasts than
places where the
any other than any other
water is warm and
weather system.
the air is humid. 10
UNITED STATES
BAHAMAS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
CUBA
JAMAICA HAITI 11
Hurricanes happen when ocean water gets warm and starts to evaporate. The water then becomes water vapor. The vapor rises and forms a small cloud. The large pressure difference between the cloud and the warm water creates a spinning storm. The spinning force pulls in hot air from all sides which then replaces the slowly cooling air. Then a column of cool air forms in the center of the storm and it is called the eye. The weather in the eye is unusually calm and mellow because it is where all of the cooling air and calm air is sinking back down to the ocean.
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Thunderstorms COOl air HOt air evaporating
Hot air
rAIN
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There are different categories of hurricane depending on their wind speed.
Besides their categories, hurricanes and tropical storms are identified by their names. The names, at the beginning of the season, start with the letter A, then B, then C, and so on. Every six years a name is repeated. However, when a hurricane does very bad damage and is well known, the name is never repeated such as hurricanes Katrina and Andrew. 14
1. Hurricanes can be up to ten miles tall! 2. The width of the eye is usually 20-30 miles per hour! 3. Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere! 4. When people are in the eye of the storm, they sometimes think the storm is over but they’re right in the middle of it! 5. The weather of the hurricanes is usually the worst on the outside of the eye - the eye wall!
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Lightning is a discharge of electricity. It happens when electrical charges in the ground try to equalize the electrical charges in a cloud. When that happens the electrical charges rush at each other and when they touch they send out a discharge of energy. When many of them simultaneously send off discharges, we see a flash of what we call lightning. This process will keep happening until the ground’s and the cloud’s electrical charges are neutralized.
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Lightning is formed when the wind starts to move around and freezes the water droplets in the cloud and turns them to hail. Some of the water droplets turn into tiny pieces of hail and start to move up in the cloud. Others turn to huge pieces of hail and start to fall in the cloud. The small ones are going up and the big ones are coming down and they both have equal electrical charges. When the chunks of hail hit each other they exchange charges. When the small chunks hit the big chunks, they give their negative charges to the bigger chunks. The smaller chunks now have a positive charge. The big chunks stay at the bottom of the cloud because they aren’t heavy enough yet to fall from the cloud. But the smaller chunks go to the top of the cloud which gives the top of the cloud a positive charge and the bottom of the cloud a negative charge.
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So the charges in the clouds are attracted to the charges in the other clouds but they are also attracted to the charges in the ground so when the connection get’s strong enough a group of negative charges start flying towards a group of positive charges and when they meet they send a discharge of energy that we see as a flash and that is lightning.
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Electrical charges are everywhere! If you can get shocked by it, it has an electrical charge. Electrical charges are small particles that float around you and when you jostle them and get to close to another jostled charge and they touch they send a discharge of electricity that we feel as a shock. It is almost the same thing as static electricity so next time you see lightning think of it as static electricity between the ground and the clouds
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1. Did you know that if you are within a ten mile radius of the outskirts of an electrical storm and there is blue skies above you you can still get 1 electrocuted?! 2. Did you know that there are 100 streaks of lightning touching the ground every second? 3. Did you know that lightning can travel through anything moist object?!
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Hurricanes, lightning, and blizzards can be deadly and always do what a trusted adult tells you to do in a difficult situation such as these natural disasters. Take shelter when these storms are near, and remember, they can cause massive damage and even hurt people.
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devastating: (dev-i-state-ing), adj, highly destructive or damaging inhabitants: (in-hab-it-ants), noun, a person or animal that lives or occupies a place evaporation: (ee-vap-or-a-shun), noun, the process of liquid turning into vapor neutralized: (noo-chrill-ized), verb, render (something) ineffective or harmless by applying an opposite force or effect simultaneously: (simo-tane-ee-us-ly), adverb, to occur, operate, or do at the same time hypothermia: (hi-po-ther-mia), noun, the condition of having an abnormally low body tempature, typically one that is dagerously low
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Works Cited Arlon, Penelope, and Tory Gordon-Harris. Weather. New York: Scholastic, 2013. Print. Burby, Liza N. Blizzards. New York: PowerKids, 1999. Print. - - -. Electrical storms. New York: Power Kids Press, 1999. Print. Burnie, David. Disasters. New York: Scholastic, 2013. Print. Bury, Liza N. Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. New York: Power Kids Press, 1999. Print. Daniels, Patricia. Weather. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 1999. Print. Flanagan, Alice K. Simply Science Weather. Minneapolis,minnesota: Compass Point Books, 2001. Print. Fun and Interesting Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://fun.yukozimo.com/facts-aboutblizzards/>. Gosman, Gillian. What Do You Know About Weather and Climate. New York: Power Kids Press, 2014. Print. Hawkins, John. Hurricane disasters. New York: Rosen central, 2012. Print. Kramer, Stephen. Lightning. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1992. Print. Meteor-Ology. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. <http://library.thinkquest.org/C020505/zblizzard/ whatcausw.htm/tql-iframe>. Rodgers, Alan, and Angella Streluk. Forecasting the Weather. Chicago Illinois: Heinemann Library, 2007. Print. Simon, Seymour. Extreme Earth Records. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2012. Print. - - -. Lightning. New York: Collins, 1997. Print. USATODAY. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2014. <HTP://USATODAY30.USATODAY.COM/WEATHER/ TG/WCFRONT/WCFRONT.HTM>. WeatherQuestions.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. <http://www.weatherquestions.com/ What_are_fronts.htm>. Weather WizKids. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. <http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-winter-
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storms.htm>.