Weather

Because March in Wisconsin can bring balmy temperatures one day and a blizzard the next, this month's report covers all things weather.

Current Weather Data | General Information | Projects and Lessons

Current Weather Data

Weather.gov is the National Weather Service's Internet data source. Use it to access local, national, and international weather forecasts, real-time data, animated maps, weather warnings, and more.

WW2010 Current Weather provides real-time weather maps, including surface temperature, dew point, pressure, infrared data, and enhanced infrared.

Wisconsin Climate Information, from the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, supplies data on snowfall and snow cover, mean and extreme temperatures and precipitation, and general climactic conditions in Wisconsin.

General Information

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) home page features loads of information about weather, climate, environment, and more. Features include storm watch information, 3-D maps, streaming audio and video, and a photo library.

The Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment, from Manchester Metropolitan University's Atmospheric Research and Information Centre, provides information on weather, climate, acid rain, and other topics. The site may be browsed or searched, and separate articles are available for younger users.

The Weather Channel Teachers' Lounge supplies weather resources such as the Weather Glossary, with more than 800 terms; the Storm Encyclopedia, with information on severe and extreme weather; and How Weather Works video clips.

Control a tornado, play with lighting or make snowflakes in these Interactives from The Why Files. Students will learn how these weather phenomenon work by manipulating variables and observing their effects.

Tornadoes, from NOAA, provides news, history, photographs, warnings, and other information about tornadoes.

Chasing Tornadoes from National Geographic magazine features a multimedia show narrated by a photographer and storm researcher who chased tornadoes in South Dakota. The site also features an article, photo gallery and exciting video clips from the storm chasers.

Hurricanes: A Fierce Force of Nature, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Observatorium, is a guide to hurricane formation, monitoring, preparedness, and more. The site features animations of hurricane formation, hurricane damage, and so on.

Hurricane Basics is an animated explanation of hurricane structure, formation, and movement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Hurricanes: Storm Science, from the Miami Museum of Science, presents information about hurricanes and offers classroom projects for elementary students. A teacher's guide is planned.

NOAA's Historical Hurricane Tracks generates maps showing the path of hurricanes recorded since 1950. The maps display color-coded storm tracks with lots of information about each storm. This interactive mapping tool is complex and appropriate for older students and researchers.

The Perfect Storm site from the Gloucester Daily Times in Maine provides news reports and photos from this legendary storm, as well as information about the book and movie.

A Lightning Primer, from NASA, gives a comprehensive look at lightning, including types of lightning, how it forms, and a history of lightning experiments.

Wind Chill, from NASA's Observatorium, explains the wind chill factor and provides a wind chille calculator and interactive wind chill chart.

Hydrologic Cycle, from NASA's Observatorium, explains the five processes of the hydrologic cycle using illustrations and animation.

Introduction to Clouds, from NASA, provides an explanation of clouds and their role in weather and climate. The site includes section on Earth's energy balance, the water cycle, and the instruments NASA is using to study clouds.

The Cloud Boutique, from Plymouth State College, supplies descriptions and photographs of all cloud types.

Know Snow, from the University of Wisconsin's The Why Files, explains the science behind snow, ice, and winter weather.

Snowtastic Snow looks at snow from many points of view. Created by Alaskan fourth-graders, the site includes sections on snow literature, history, science, and sports, as well as activities and games.

Forces of Nature is a student-created site that explores many weather-related phenomena, including drought, floods, monsoons, snowstorms, and wind storms.

The Weather Report gives an introduction to weather and climate. Developed by students, the site includes sections on the atmosphere, wind, lightning and thunder, precipitation, temperature and humidity, and more.

Space Weather, from the University of Michigan, explains and illustrates the sun-Earth system and space weather events such as sun spots, solar flares, and solar wind.

Global Warming Facts & Our Future from the Marian Koshland Science Museum and National Academy of Sciences reveals the science behind global warming and examines the possible implications of this phenomenon for the quality of life around the world.

New National Geographic's Signs from the Earth includes several features about global warming, including a photo gallery, video clips aand an interactive quiz.

El Niño Theme Page, from NOAA, provides basic and advanced information about El Niño and La Niña.

Tracking El Niño, from the PBS series Nova, gives a multimedia look at El Niño, including animations that show El Niño's effects and a game that illustrates global factors which influence the earth's weather patterns.

Children of the Tropics: El Niño and La Niña, from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, describes these ocean-warming and -cooling phenomena as well as their meteorological effects.

El Niño: Making Sense of the Weather, from NASA, provides a brief explanation of the El Niño phenomenon and simple classroom weather activities for elementary students.

El Niño: A Child of the Tropics is a student-created Web site that takes a comprehensive look at the phenomenon.

Projects and Lessons

In Weather Scope: An Investigative Study of Weather and Climate, students are asked to write a report on current weather conditions and the general climate in your area. Students will learn how to how to record weather data and represent it in graphs and maps, how to compare weather in different places or at different times, and how to explain the factors that affect temperature and current weather conditions. This project from the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) is designed for upper elementary and middle school students. The site includes a teacher's guide and a Spanish language version.

The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide network of students, teachers, and scientists studying the environment. GLOBE students make environmental observations and report their data through the Internet. Scientists use GLOBE data in their research and provide feedback to the students. The Web site features maps and images that students can manipulate to create visual pictures of weather and other environmental features they observe.

S'COOL (Students' Cloud Observations On-Line) enlists students help with NASA's CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System) experiment. Participating classes make weather observations and record the types and features of clouds seen at the time when a NASA satellite passes over their location. Students use these surface- and space-based observations to learn more about clouds and climate.

WW2010 Online Guides, from the University of Illinois Department of Atmospheric Sciences, provide a set of Web-based instructional resources on meteorology, remote sensing, and weather map reading and interpretation. Among them are detailed lessons and illustrated high-school-level teacher guides.

Project SkyMath, from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Science, is a middle school mathematics module incorporating real-time weather data. The 16 lessons use the science and language of patterns to explore the weather, and they address the standards of both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and National Science Education.

In the Global Warming Project, students in grades 7 through 10 learn about scientific factors that contribute to the controversial global warming debate. The project places students as advisors to heads of state for several nations, prompting students to learn about the issue as they respond to these leaders' various questions and concerns.

Weather Curriculum, from NASA's Athena Project, provides online lessons on a variety of weather topics for different grade levels. Athena lessons focus on the universal concepts and processes that underlie scientific research.

The Weather Unit, from the University of Illinois' Collaborative Lesson Archive, is a set of middle school lesson plans about weather that cover many subject areas. They were created by a sixth-grade teacher and an atmospheric scientist.

Weather Here and There incorporates interaction with the Internet and hands-on collaborative, problem-solving activities for students in grades 4 through 6. The lessons integrate math, science, geography, and language arts into learning about weather phenomena.

One Sky Many Voices, from the University of Michigan, supplies inquiry-based middle school weather curricula that get students collaborating and using technologies such as CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web to study current weather and air quality. Classrooms may participate in the four- and eight-week projects "Hurricanes" and "Kids as Global Scientists."

Webweather for Kids, from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, supplies four weather experiments.

Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere, from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, is a Web site for middle school science and math teachers. The site provides background materials and lots of illustrations for study of the atmoshpere including the greenhouse effect, global climate change, and ozone. Each lesson includes concepts, goals and hands-on acitivities for students.

The Text-only menu provides accessible and printer-friendly access to the Surf Report Archives.

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