Weather Wonders

by
Sophie Walker

Have you ever looked at the sky and wondered why it changes? The weather is a powerful and mysterious force that affects our lives every single day. Meet Bree, a student who loves to ask questions, and Nimbus, a weather expert who knows all the secrets of the clouds. Today, they are going on a journey to discover amazing facts about the world above our heads. Are you ready to become a weather expert too?

Did you know that raindrops are not shaped like tears? Most people draw them with a pointy top and a round bottom. However, Nimbus explains that small raindrops are actually perfect spheres, like tiny balls. As they grow larger and fall through the air, they flatten out on the bottom. By the time they reach us, they look more like the top half of a hamburger bun!

We often think of deserts as hot, sandy places, but Bree is surprised to learn that the driest place on Earth is actually covered in ice! Antarctica is considered a desert because it receives very little rain or snow each year. In some parts of Antarctica, it hasn’t rained for millions of years. It is a land of ice, but it is also the world’s largest and coldest desert.

When you look at a snowy field, it looks like a giant white blanket. But Nimbus has a secret: snow is not actually white! Snow is made of ice crystals, and ice is clear, just like a window. When light hits the many edges of the ice crystals, the light bounces off in every direction. This makes the snow appear white to our eyes, even though each individual crystal is translucent.

Every snowflake is unique, but they all share one rule: they have six sides. This is because of the way water molecules join together when they freeze. Bree catches a snowflake on her glove and notices that no matter how complex the pattern is, the hexagonal shape remains the same. It is nature’s very own geometry lesson, falling gently from the sky.

Boom! When a storm arrives, the sound of thunder can be scary. But you can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is. Light travels much faster than sound. When you see a flash of lightning, start counting the seconds. Every five seconds you count equals about one mile of distance. If you count to ten before you hear the “boom,” the storm is two miles away!

Lightning is one of the hottest things in the universe. A single bolt of lightning can reach temperatures of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is five times hotter than the surface of the sun! This intense heat causes the air around the lightning to expand and explode, which is what creates the loud sound of thunder we hear a few moments later.

Wind is just air in a hurry. It moves because of differences in temperature and pressure. The fastest winds on Earth happen inside tornadoes. These spinning funnels of air can reach speeds of over 300 miles per hour! Bree holds onto her hat as a gust of wind blows past, feeling the incredible energy that the atmosphere can create.

Look up at a big, fluffy white cloud. It looks as light as a cotton ball, doesn’t it? Nimbus explains that this is a trick of the eyes. A typical white cloud can weigh more than a million pounds! That is the same weight as about 100 elephants. Clouds stay in the sky because the water droplets inside them are very small and the warm air rising from the ground pushes them upward.

After the rain, the sun often comes out to create a rainbow. Did you know that rainbows are actually full circles? From the ground, the horizon hides the bottom half, so we only see an arch. If you were in an airplane high in the sky, you might see a perfect, colorful circle! Bree and Nimbus watch the colors fade, happy to know so much more about the wonders of the weather.