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Weather Lab 6-8 / Week 10 / Station Day
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Week 10 · Oceans, Currents and Climate Zones

Station Day

Station Day: Climate detectives
// How moving water shapes the climate of a place
⏱ about 20 min

Station Day: Climate Detectives

Saturday morning, the crew spreads the four city postcards and a blank world map across the kitchen table.

"Family quiz," Rocket announces. "Guess which city has the coldest January. No peeking at the table."

Raven's cousin picks Seattle. "It is the farthest north."

"That is exactly what I guessed," Rocket says. "And we were both wrong."

Raven slides the normals table across. "What do you notice when you read latitude and elevation together?"

Nova projects a soft outline of the Atlantic on the wall and traces a warm arrow from Florida to Europe.

"Every clue counts," she says. "Latitude, altitude, and the ocean next door."

The cousin grins. "Okay. Ask me another."

  1. The ocean covers about 70 percent of Earth and moves heat from the tropics toward the poles.
  2. Currents are driven by tides, winds and density. Earth's rotation bends them through the Coriolis effect.
  3. Cold, salty water sinks near the poles and drives the global conveyor belt, a loop that takes about 1,000 years.
  4. A climate normal is a 30-year average. The current normals cover 1991 to 2020.
  5. Regional climate depends on latitude, altitude and the ocean nearby. The Gulf Stream carries heat from Florida toward Europe.
◇ CLIMATE DETECTIVES
Draw a rough world map on a large sheet of paper, or use a globe or printed map.
Mark the four cities from Thursday: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Denver.
Take turns: one person names a city, the other names the factor that most shapes its climate (latitude, altitude or ocean).
Draw the Gulf Stream as a warm arrow from Florida, east off North Carolina, and across to Europe.
Draw the global conveyor belt as a cold arrow sinking near Greenland and traveling south along the Atlantic.
Finish with a family vote: which of the four cities has a climate most like your area, and why?
For a grown-up
The numbers your student used are NOAA's official 1991 to 2020 climate normals, published by the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Ask: why can two cities at the same latitude have such different winters? (Elevation and distance from the ocean.)
If you want to see your own area's normals, a grown-up can look them up on weather.gov. The course never asks where you live.
DETECTIVE CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Two cities sit at almost the same latitude, but one is much colder and drier in January. What is the likeliest reason?
Which current carries warm water from Florida toward Europe?
What starts the global conveyor belt?
How many years go into one of NOAA's climate normals? Type a number.
WHY THIS EXERCISEA normal is the ruler you will use next week to judge whether a year is warmer or cooler than usual.
Station Day reviewTrue or false?
Winds drive currents in the top 100 meters of the ocean.?
Seattle is the farthest north of the four cities and has the coldest January.?
The Gulf Stream's average speed is about 4 miles per hour.?
Water stores heat better than air.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEThese are the facts your family detectives need to solve any climate case.
Try it
Keep the family map on the wall this week. Each day, add one arrow or label you learn about Earth's heat.
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