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Weather Lab 6-8 / Week 01 / Station Day
6/6
Week 01 · Weather or Climate?

Station Day

Station Day: Weather walk
// The state of the air today, and the pattern over many years
⏱ about 20 min

Station Day: Weather Walk

Saturday morning, the whole crew meets at the station. The jar holds a thin layer of water from the night.

"Rain!" Rocket says. "Our first real measurement." He reads the ruler carefully.

Raven checks the flag. It barely moves. "Calm wind, damp air, low gray clouds. What do you notice, Nova?"

Nova compares the log to the official report. "Your reading is close," she says. "Close is a good start."

"One week of weather," Rocket says. "Only twenty-nine years and fifty-one weeks until we have a climate normal."

Raven grins. "Then we had better not miss a day."

  1. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a place and time: wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture and pressure.
  2. Climate is the average weather of an area over a long period of time, often thirty years (Climate Normals).
  3. Almost all weather happens in the troposphere, which is tallest at the equator and shortest at the poles.
  4. Station Rooftop has a rain gauge and a wind flag. Wind is named for where it comes from.
  5. Use climate to plan, and weather to decide.
◇ FAMILY WEATHER WALK
Take a short walk together in your area, with a grown-up, when the weather is calm.
Each person names one weather observation out loud: temperature, wind, clouds, moisture or how the air feels.
Stop at three spots: a sunny open place, a shady place and a sheltered place. Does the air feel different?
Back home, read the rain gauge and the flag together and add a shared entry to the log.
Each person guesses tomorrow's weather in one word. Check the guesses tomorrow.
For a grown-up
The walk happens only in calm weather. Skip it in a thunderstorm, flood or high wind.
Compare the family's readings with the National Weather Service report for your area, found at weather.gov in words.
Ask your student: what is the difference between weather and climate?
STATION DAY CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
The family walk is cancelled because of a thunderstorm. Is that weather or climate?
Which instrument gave the crew its first real measurement on Saturday?
Why did Rocket say the crew needs twenty-nine more years?
Safety first
Walk only in calm weather, with a grown-up, and never look at the Sun.
Weather walkTrue or false?
Air can feel different in a sunny spot and a shady spot at the same time.?
A guess about tomorrow's weather is a Climate Normal.?
Wind is named for the direction it comes from.?
A weather walk is fine during a thunderstorm.?
WHY THIS EXERCISENoticing differences between nearby spots is the first step toward explaining them next week.
On paper, map your walk: the three stops, the sunny and shady spots, and an arrow for the wind.
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