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Back to the water cycle on the USGS Water Science School.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere truly is the superhighway in the sky that moves water everywhere over the Earth.

The next time you go outside you will be standing in the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere is all the air from the bottom of an ant's leg up to where there is no more air-many miles in the sky.

The air outside may look invisible, but it is full of molecules, including water molecules, as water vapor. That big cumulus cloud (full of water) floating in the sky is the water cycle in action.

The water vapor all around you rises up into the sky to become part of a cloud which will float off with the winds, probably looking for a picnic to rain on. A cloud in the atmosphere can move for hundreds of miles before it releases its water as rain or snow. That is how water that evaporates from the ocean one day may end up as rainfall over Ezmerelda's tomato patch in Kansas the next day.

How much does a cloud weigh?

Clouds are made of water, and water has weight, so how can they float? They float because the air below them has weight, too-more weight. Think about oil and water-if you pour oil into water the oil floats to the top of the water. That is because oil is lighter (less dense) than water; the same thing applies to clouds in the sky.

What fools you is that the water vapor in the air in a clear, blue sky is invisible, and there is not enough water vapor to condense into clouds. Water vapor contains water molecules-one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. You know hydrogen is the lightest of all elements, and, even when combined with an oxygen atom, the hydrogen acts like little "hot air balloons" that makes the vapor lighter than the molecules in the surrounding dry air. Water vapor naturally floats upwards, eventually condensing and forming clouds.

And, a cloud weighs ... According to NOAA, your average cumulus cloud one kilometer (0.62 miles) on a side will weigh about 998 million kilograms (2.2 billion pounds). That is equal to about 22 million (22,000,000) kids weighing 100 pounds each.

Learn more: Atmosphere | Condensation | "Little cloud that could" | Rainbows
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Fog and dew

Fog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky.

Fog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (next to the ground) and some of the water vapor condenses out into liquid water droplets. In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor.

In the case of dew, water vapor in the air encounters a substance that has become cooler, such as the grass at night or even your glass of iced tea. The cooler temperatures causes the water vapor in the air to condense into liquid water-dew.

Fog and dew can join forces to become an intricate part on the water cycle in certain locations. On the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, fog condenses into dew and drips onto the ground, contributing a significant amount of water to the forests during the non-rainy months.

Groundwater flow

If you pour a glass of water onto the ground it usually sinks right in ( infiltration), so you can imagine how much water sinks into the ground during a major storm ( Find out here). Here in Atlanta, Ga, USA it rains about 50 inches/year. Over a 100 square mile (10 miles by 10 miles) area, that means 87,000 billion gallons of water falls, with much of it soaking into the ground to become groundwater.

Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true. Water underground moves, due to gravity, downward and sideways. Groundwater serves many purposes in nature: keeping plants alive, filling aquifers, from which people can withdraw water, providing water to rivers and lakes, and eventually flowing into the oceans.

You may know that water's chemical composition is H ₂ O. A water molecule contains 2 hydrogen (H) atoms and 1 oxygen (O) atom.

One molecule of water in your glass won't quench your thirst, though. You need LOTS of water molecules, trillions of them. At normal temperatures all those individual water molecules like to stick together and form a liquid (the water in your glass).

Because of the way that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms exist in a water molecule, one water molecule is attracted to another water molecule. The opposite sides of a water molecule stick to each other just as opposite sides (poles) of magnets do.

Like a magnet, one side of the water molecule (the side with the oxygen atom) has a negative electrical charge while the other side, where the hydrogen atoms sit, has a positive charge. Since opposite charges attract each other, water molecules attract each other. So much so that when trillions of them get together, they often start sticking to each other and, thus, you have liquid water.

Ice and snow

Ice and glaciers are part of the water cycle, even though the water in them moves very slowly. The amount of ice on the Earth goes up and down as the world's climate cools and warms over thousands of years.

Lucky for us we're now in a warmer phase of the Earth's history, but the last Ice Age was only 18,000 years ago. At that time, ice covered the northern part of North America.

So much liquid water was locked up in ice back then that the oceans were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than they are today. If all land ice melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet (70 meters).

Ice and glaciers are still very prevalent today, as you can see by looking at a satellite image of Greenland (now, why is it called "Green"land?). Glacial ice covers 10-11 percent of all land. In fact, most of the world's freshwater, about 68 percent, is locked up in ice, snow, and glaciers.

Ice caps influence the weather, too. The color white reflects sunlight (heat) more than darker colors, and as ice is so white, sunlight is reflected back out to the sky, which helps to create weather patterns.

Sublimation

When rain falls where you live, much of it disappears from evaporation, right? But what about at the top of Mt. Everest? The elevation is over 29,000 feet and temperatures at the peak are never above freezing, so it never rains there. It does snow a lot. We all know that snow melts, but if it never rises above freezing, how does snow not build up forever on Mt. Everest?

As this picture shows, winds, often at hurricane force, blow tons of snow off the peak. But a part of the water cycle called "sublimation" is also at work. Just as evaporation turns liquid water into water vapor gas, sublimation turns frozen water directly into water vapor gas, skipping the melting phase into a liquid.

Also, as with evaporation, the sun's heat causes sublimation to work, and on top of Mt. Everest on a clear day, the sun is very strong and provides energy for sublimation, even though it is below freezing.

Sublimation doesn't just occur on mountain peaks. If there is snow and ice buildup in your neighborhood then on a sunny and dry day sublimation is happening there, too.

Sunbathing - evaporation

If this drip sitting on a desert island is hoping to get a tan, she'd better hurry because the water cycle is not going to let her hang around here very long. A water drop laying in the sun on a hot day is just asking to be evaporated by the sun.

As soon as she sat down in her chair, the sun's heat began to evaporate her into water vapor gas, and so she will float off as millions of vapor particles up into the sky. The drip won't be upset, though, as her water vapor will eventually recombine to form clouds and then rain which will runoff the land into rivers which flow into the oceans, again. She can be back sunbathing by the next day.

Volcanic steam

Volcanoes cannot exactly get angry, but as this picture of Mt. St. Helens, USA in 2005 shows, they really do "blow off steam". It may not be a big component of the world's water cycle, but volcanoes and geysers do release steam into the air, steam which rises and becomes clouds.

What is interesting about the steam coming from a volcano is that the components of water are coming out from deep inside the earth, which is on the far edges of the water cycle. At a certain depth below the land surface you won't find liquid water, due to the tremendous temperatures and pressures. But the molten rock and material making up magma deep in the earth contains chemicals that later do form water molecules.

The World's Water

Where is Earth's Water?

In the first bar, notice how only 2.5% of all Earth's water is freshwater, which is what life needs to survive. Over 96% of all water is found in the oceans.

The middle bar shows the breakdown on that 2.5% which is freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only 1.3% of all freshwater (which was only 2.5% of all water) is surface water, such as lakes and rivers, which serves most of life's needs.

The right side bar shows the breakdown of only the surface freshwater, which was only 1.3% of all freshwater. Most of surface freshwater is locked up in ice, and another 20% is in lakes. Notice the 0.46% of surface freshwater that is in rivers. Sounds like a tiny amount, but rivers are where humans get a large portion of their water from.

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Interactive Water Cycle Diagram for Kids (Advanced)

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The Water Cycle for Kids, from the USGS Water Science School.

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Drag and drop the pins to their correct place on the image.. evaporation, The Sun, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, runoff, accumulation.

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Open the box - Tap each box in turn to open them up and reveal the item inside.

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Maze chase - Run to the correct answer zone, whilst avoiding the enemies.

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Spend some time engaging with the weather patterns sim. Be sure to log in through teach hub first!

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Natural water cycle game | South East Water Education

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Explore the natural water cycle and help Whoosh keep the water moving in this fun and interactive online game.

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☁️ What is a Cloud? Crash Course Geography #10

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You hang up a wet towel and, when you come back, it's dry. You set out a bowl of water for your dog and when you look again, the water level in the bowl has dropped even though Woofy has been nowhere near the bowl.

Where did the missing water go? It evaporated. That means some of the liquid water in the towel or bowl changed into an invisible gas called water vapor and drifted away into the atmosphere. (Notice that "evaporated" contains the word "vapor.")

The same thing is constantly happening with oceans, lakes, rivers, swamps, swimming pools - and everywhere water is in contact with air.

Liquid water changes into a gas when water molecules get extra energy from a heat source such as the Sun or from other water molecules running into them. These energetic molecules then escape from the liquid water in the form of gas. In the process of changing from liquid to gas, the molecules absorb heat, which they carry with them into the atmosphere. That cools the water they leave behind.

The air can only hold a certain amount of water vapor, depending on the temperature and weight of the air - or atmospheric pressure - in a given area. The higher the temperature or atmospheric pressure, the more water vapor the air can hold. When a certain volume of air is holding all the water vapor it can hold, it is said to be "saturated."

What happens if a saturated volume of air cools or the atmospheric pressure drops? The air is no longer able to hold all that water vapor. The excess amount changes from a gas into a liquid or solid (ice). The process of water changing from a gas to a liquid is called "condensation," and when gas changes directly into a solid, it is called "deposition." These two processes are how clouds form.

Condensation happens with the help of tiny particles floating around in the air, such as dust, salt crystals from sea spray, bacteria or even ash from volcanoes. Those particles provide surfaces on which water vapor can change into liquid droplets or ice crystals.

A large accumulation of such droplets or ice crystals is a cloud.

We usually think of clouds as being up in the sky, but when conditions are right, a cloud can form at ground level, too. Then it's called "fog." If you've ever walked through fog, you've walked through a cloud.

Although the basic idea of cloud formation is easy to understand, there is much more to learn. Peek beneath a cloud's fluffy exterior, and you'll find a world of complexity. In fact, clouds are considered one of the most challenging aspects of climate science.

That's because truly understanding clouds requires a deep understanding of the entire atmosphere. Scientists are working to increase their understanding, with the help of instruments such as those on NASA's Terra, Aqua, Aura, CALIPSO, CloudSat and other satellites that observe different aspects of clouds.

The better we can understand clouds and the atmosphere that creates them, the better we can find out what's happening to our climate.

Related NASA Missions

Related Resources for Educators
Make a cloud in a bottle with this DIY project!

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You hang up a wet towel and, when you come back, it's dry. You set out a bowl of water for your dog and when you look again, the water level in the bowl has dropped even though Woofy has been nowhere near the bowl. Where did the missing water go?

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Clouds are made of water droplets or ice crystals that are so small and light they are able to stay up in the air. But how does the water and ice that makes up clouds get into the sky? And why do different types of clouds form?

Water Vapor Evaporates Into the Air

The water and ice that make up clouds travels into the sky within air as water vapor, the gas form of water. Water vapor gets into air mainly by evaporation - some of the liquid water from the ocean, lakes, and rivers turns into water vapor and travels in the air. When air rises in the atmosphere it gets cooler and is under less pressure. When air cools, some of the water vapor condenses. As air pressure drops, some water vapor condenses too. The vapor becomes small water droplets and a cloud is formed.

Water Vapor Condenses to Form a Cloud

It's easier for water vapor to condense into water droplets when it has a particle to condense upon. These particles, such as dust and pollen, are called condensation nuclei. Eventually, enough water vapor condenses on pieces of dust, pollen, and other condensation nuclei to form a cloud.

Clouds Form in Different Ways

Some clouds form as air warms up near the Earth's surface and rises. Heated by sunshine, the ground heats the air just above it. That warmed air starts to rise because, when warm, it is lighter and less dense than the air around it. As it rises, its pressure and temperature drop causing water vapor to condense. Eventually, enough moisture will condense out of the air to form a cloud. Several types of clouds form in this way including cumulus, cumulonimbus, mammatus, and stratocumulus clouds.

Some clouds, such as lenticular and stratus clouds, form when wind blows into the side of a mountain range or other terrain and is forced upward, higher in the atmosphere. This process can also happen without a dramatic mountain range, just when air travels over land that slopes upward and is forced to rise. The air cools as it rises, and eventually clouds form. Other types of clouds, such as cumulus clouds, can also form above mountains too as air is warmed at the ground and rises.

Clouds also form when air is forced upward at areas of low pressure. Winds meet at the center of a low-pressure system and have nowhere to go but up. All types of clouds are formed by these processes, especially altocumulus, altostratus, cirrocumulus, stratocumulus, and stratus clouds.

Weather fronts, where two large masses of air collide at the Earth's surface, also form clouds by causing air to rise.

At a warm front, where a warm air mass slides over a cold air mass, the warm air is pushed upward forming many different types of clouds, from low stratus clouds to midlevel altocumulus and altostratus clouds, to high cirrus, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus clouds. Clouds that produce rain like nimbostratus and cumulonimbus are also common at warm fronts.

At a cold front, where heavy a cold air mass pushes a warm air mass upward, cumulous clouds are common. They often grow into cumulonimbus clouds, which produce thunderstorms. Nimbostratus, stratocumulus, and stratus clouds can also form at a cold front.

© 2019 UCAR with portions adapted from Windows to the Universe (© 2009 NESTA)

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Clouds are made of water droplets or ice crystals that are so small and light they are able to stay up in the air. But how does the water and ice that makes up clouds get into the sky? And why do different types of clouds form?

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Radiation and heat transfer in the atmosphere

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New York to See Hotter Temps, More Rain, Flooding & Worse Storms, New Climate Report Says

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A new state-wide report on the impacts of climate change shows New York City will be impacted on all fronts: The Big Apple is getting 6 to 10 degrees warmer, and will see more precipitation and tidal floods in the coming decades. “We have to understand that this stuff is going to happen, it’s already happening,” one state official said.

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'It's Beautiful': New York Gets Its Biggest Snowfall in Years

New York received its heaviest snowfall in years after a storm pummeled the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service recorded 10 inches of precipitation in Central Park. Upstate, Binghamton got 41.

"This is my first snow in the city. I moved last year, but we didn't have any snow. So I don't know, it's just like the whole city is blanketed. It's beautiful." "It's amazing, it's great for the kids to see some normal stuff and experience some real winter in the city."

New York received its heaviest snowfall in years after a storm pummeled the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday. The National Weather Service recorded 10 inches of precipitation in Central Park. Upstate, Binghamton got 41. Credit Credit... Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

As a powerful nor'easter exited the New York region late Thursday morning and moved into New England, it left behind the biggest snowfall the city had gotten in several years.

The quick-moving storm pummeled much of the Northeast with snow, sleet and heavy winds on Wednesday and Thursday. Parts of upstate New York were hit particularly hard, getting more than three feet of snow. Officials from Virginia to Maine blamed the weather for hundreds of car crashes and at least six deaths.

Despite the heavy precipitation, the storm's impact in the New York City area - the region's first major snow of the season - was less devastating than it might have been given the well-established changes to school, work and nightlife routines forced by the pandemic.

With the storm moving on, people began to shovel sidewalks and driveways and to dig out cars buried in snow, as officials in the affected areas continued to advise against testing icy roads. The guidance was redundant for legions of commuters who have worked from home for months. Some schools continued classes, using online techniques they have relied on in for months.

"If there is any silver lining to this cloud that we've been living under, this is it," said George Latimer, the Westchester County, N.Y., executive.

A winter storm warning was lifted at 1 p.m. for New York City and the surrounding suburbs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The heaviest snowfall hit the city overnight. By 8 a.m., 10 inches had fallen in Central Park, the National Weather Service said.

"The amount of snow we saw in the last 24 hours was the most we've seen since January 2016," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Parts of Connecticut got a foot of snow, according to Weather Service reports, and just under a foot was recorded in the Bronx and in Jamaica, Queens.

To the north, some parts of Massachusetts got up to 10 inches, with more expected. Several cities in upstate New York were reporting record or near-record snowfalls.

"It is a serious condition," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said."

In Binghamton, N.Y., meteorologists reported 41 inches of snow, with more than four inches an hour falling overnight. The executive of Broome County, which encompasses it, ordered a ban on travel Thursday morning that prohibited everyone except essential workers from the roads.

The storm's effects were expected to linger. With temperatures hovering near freezing, the Weather Service warned that roads and sidewalks would most likely be treacherous and that travelers should take extra care.

The heavy winds and wet snow caused some power outages in parts of the New York City region. There were more than 9,100 power outages in New York State, Mr. Cuomo said Thursday morning. More than 3,700 customers were without electricity on Long Island, according to utility providers, with the bulk of the outages in eastern Suffolk County.

In New Jersey, there were 13,000 outages at the storm's peak, officials said.

Da'Vel Johnson, a Weather Service meteorologist, said the cold temperatures that accompanied the storm were expected to persist, with windchill effects making the region feel particularly frigid.

"It will be pretty chilly for quite some time," Mr. Johnson said. "Like, welcome people to winter."

ALBANY, N.Y. - The snowstorm that blanketed the Northeast delivered record or near-record snowfalls to parts of upstate New York, prompting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday to declare a state of emergency in 18 counties outside New York City and its immediate suburbs.

The snow was particularly heavy in the state's Southern Tier area, with the biggest city in the region, Binghamton, getting 41 inches, the National Weather Service said. At its heaviest, the snow was falling in Binghamton at a rate of more than four inches an hour, meteorologists said.

The city's previous two-day snowfall record, set in March 2017, was 35.3 inches.

Officials in the city and in Broome County, where Binghamton is the seat, urged residents to stay off the roads to allow for plowing.

Early Thursday, the Broome County executive, Jason Garnar, said the county was using whatever four-wheeled vehicles were available to take hospital and nursing home workers to their jobs as the region continues to confront an increase in coronavirus cases over the past month.

In one instance, Broome County sheriff's deputies used a Humvee to take a sick patient to the hospital after ambulances and snowmobiles were unable to reach a remote area. Parking lots at some hospitals and medical centers were also inaccessible, creating additional complications.

Some smaller towns and villages had not yet been able to get drivers into their snow plows.

The area's major north-south highway, Interstate 81, was "basically a parking lot" on Thursday morning, Mr. Garnar said, after disabled vehicles snarled traffic. There were widespread reports of cars off the road elsewhere as well.

Richard C. David, Binghamton's mayor, said that more than two dozen plows were working to clear the city's streets on Thursday, but that several had broken down or gotten stuck in the snow.

"It's historic levels here," he said.

Most businesses were closed, and snow removal crews were planning to work through the night to try to dig out the city.

Initially, there were no reports of damage caused directly by the storm, the mayor said. But the local television station WBNG reported later on Thursday that the inflatable dome at the 125,000-square-foot Greater Binghamton Sports Complex had collapsed under the weight of the accumulated snow. No injuries were reported.

Mr. David said residents of the region, a largely rural swath along Pennsylvania's northern border, had been surprised by the storm's intensity after initial forecasts that predicted from eight to 18 inches of snow.

Instead, the snowfall "was more than double" what was anticipated, he said, making it hard for plows to keep up.

The mayor said he woke up at 2:30 a.m. Thursday and was stunned to see what he described as whiteout conditions.

"I'd never seen it come down that fast, in that period of time," he said.

"It was beautiful, actually," he added.

The small rural town of Newark Valley, just northwest of Binghamton, appeared to have been hit even harder, getting around 44 inches of snow, according to Mr. Cuomo.

In Albany, the state capital, nearly 23 inches had fallen at the airport by Thursday afternoon. The city's mayor, Kathy Sheehan, declared a state of emergency, closing civic buildings.

Cities from the Mid-Atlantic to New England were blanketed by snow and ice on Wednesday and Thursday, with some recording more snowfall overnight than they had all last winter.

New York City. Central Park got 10 inches of precipitation, according to the National Weather Service. Nine inches were recorded at La Guardia Airport, and more than 11 inches in Jamaica, Queens. On Long Island, snow totals were mostly between three and eight inches, the Weather Service reported.

Binghamton, N.Y. The city, in New York's Southern Tier, recorded at least 41 inches of snow, officials said. The 40 inches at the city's airport, in Maine, N.Y., set a record for the most snowfall over two days at that location, the Weather Service said.

Newark. New Jersey's largest city had gotten 11.4 inches of snow by according to Weather Service.

Boston. Snow continued to fall across the region early Thursday afternoon. As of earlier in the day, the city had broken its daily snowfall record for Dec. 17, with 12.5 inches of snow, the Weather Service said.

Hartford, Conn. The city, Connecticut's capital, recorded 12.5 inches just before noon on Thursday, according to the Weather Service.

Philadelphia. The city got 6.6 inches, the Weather Service said, its largest snowfall since March 2018.

Baltimore. Parts of Baltimore County got up to 8.5 inches of snow, but only 3.8 inches had fallen in the City of Baltimore by early Thursday, the Weather Service said.

Washington. One inch of snow was recorded on Wednesday, according to the Weather Service. Dulles International Airport, which is just outside the city in Virginia, got 2.3 inches as of midnight.

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Snowstorm Delayed Vaccine Deliveries, Says N.J. Governor

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said that the snowstorm that hit the East Coast on Wednesday and into Thursday morning delayed the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to some hospitals by several hours.

And also, folks, as you get out this morning to dig out, and to help your neighbors, please remember to remain safe at every level. If you see a downed power line, call it in. Don't go near it. If your power is out, call it in and don't assume someone else will. Remember we're in a pandemic. So keep social distancing and keep face coverings on as you help your neighbors. I think it is fair to say before anyone asks, I think this storm did disrupt some amount of the delivery of the vaccine, but I believe that is a disruption that will be measured, and it will get there. But a little bit later, as opposed to it's a binary - it was going to get there and it is now not. I'm not aware of any place that was expecting it that won't get it. It might just be a little bit later than otherwise expected. I had said yesterday that we started with six hospitals, another 47 are coming online, and I think 35 of those 47 were expecting vaccines today or tomorrow. I think it's going to be measured in hours or a half a day as opposed to much more than that.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said that the snowstorm that hit the East Coast on Wednesday and into Thursday morning delayed the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to some hospitals by several hours. Credit Credit... George Etheredge for The New York Times

The winter storm that made its way up the East Coast on Wednesday and into Thursday morning was, like everything in 2020, complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The safety warnings that usually follow a storm - take care while traveling, try to keep warm, check on the most vulnerable people - took on even greater urgency because of concerns raised by recent uptick of the virus in many areas in the path of the nor'easter.

"Remember, we're in a pandemic," Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said. "So keep social distancing, and keep face coverings on as you help your neighbors."

With their intensive care units and emergency departments already overloaded with Covid-19 cases, hospitals in areas hit by the storm delayed elective surgeries to keep beds available. Several major cities, including New York, Baltimore and Hartford, Conn., shut virus testing sites down temporarily in anticipation of heavy snow and wind.

The storm also threatened the timely delivery of coronavirus vaccines, just after the first inoculations of health care workers started this week. St. Luke's University Health Network, which operates 12 hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, expected to receive its first vaccine batch on Thursday, but a spokesman said the storm might delay delivery.

The storm had delayed delivery of vaccine doses to some hospitals in New Jersey by several hours, Mr. Murphy said.

"It will get there," he said, "but it will get there a little bit later."

In New York City, with the storm mostly passed, officials said they would open city-run virus testing centers at noon on Thursday.

Hundreds of school districts said they would close Wednesday and Thursday because of the storm, but others found that the approach to online learning they had honed during the pandemic was the perfect substitute for a snow day, leaving some students disappointed.

Even the usual headaches of travel delays - hundreds of flights were canceled on Wednesday - came with new worries because of the virus. Chloe Cho, 22, was scheduled to fly home to Chicago from Boston on Thursday, but the storm caused her to delay her trip an extra day.

"I am not thrilled," she said. "I usually don't mind waiting in airports, but now I'm scared because of Covid that I'm going to have to sit around and wait for my flight due to the storm."

The major winter storm that hit the Eastern United States on Wednesday and Thursday probably prompted some people to ask, "What happened to global warming?"

But although it's becoming increasingly clear that climate change does have an effect on storms, the relationship can be complex and, yes, counterintuitive. "There were these expectations that winter was basically going to disappear on us," said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at AER, a company that provides information to clients about weather and climate-related risk.

Although winters are becoming warmer and somewhat milder over all, extreme weather events have also been on the increase, and especially in the Northeastern United States, as Dr. Cohen pointed out in a recent paper in the journal Nature Climate Change. From the winter of 2008-9 until 2017-18, there were 27 major Northeast winter storms, three to four times the totals for each of the previous five decades.

One of the factors potentially feeding storms is a warmer atmosphere, which can hold more water vapor; not only can that mean more precipitation, but when the vapor forms clouds, "it releases heat into the air, which provides fuel for storms," said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Also potentially important, but less understood, she noted, is "the increased tendency for the jet stream to take big swoops north and south," setting up weather phenomena like the dreaded polar vortex.

Does that mean this particular storm has been fueled by climate change? Jonathan E. Martin, a professor in the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, cautioned against drawing quick conclusions.

Because of the "enormous natural variability" in storms and the weather they deliver, "I think it is a dangerous business attributing individual winter storms, or characteristics of them, to climate change," he said. And this storm in particular, he added, is getting a lot of its moisture from water vapor evaporated off the Atlantic Ocean, which complicates the picture.

Dr. Francis agreed that any connections are complex, but added, "all storms now form in a greatly altered climate, so there's little doubt that the same storm decades ago would not be the same."

It's usually a New York City nightmare: a midweek nor'easter that promised to dump a foot of snow before the morning commute, snarling traffic, shutting down airports and commuter train lines, slowing subways and forcing parents to somehow work around small children thrilled by a day off from school.

But this is 2020. The snow day began nine months ago. And in the sort of reversal that could only happen in this pandemic era, a heavy snowstorm is, to many, a most welcome change, something new to look at from the windows that New Yorkers have lived behind since March.

Of course, to essential workers and city agencies, the storm was still a storm, packing the potential for major problems. Restaurant workers, coming off the halt of indoor dining on Monday and some outdoor dining ahead of the storm on Wednesday, braced for the first stretch without any business since the spring. Taxi drivers, food vendors - everyone who makes a living in the street - stood to face a loss made greater by the months that came before.

But in other pockets of the city, to anticipate and lean into something fun - to see a colossal storm approaching and think "sled" - felt almost indulgent. Mothers and fathers planned to mute their office notifications before ducking outside with sons and daughters, finding fresh, white hills normally out of reach on a work day.

Daniel Lugo and his daughter, Frida, 6, tried two hardware stores in Brooklyn's Windsor Terrace neighborhood on Wednesday, finally finding what they were after - a long blue sled - on Prospect Avenue. "Our last one," a worker said.

"Oh, yes!" came the shouted reply - and not from Frida. "It actually feels good," Mr. Lugo said, his glasses fogging above his mask. Normally, he'd be taking a subway to Manhattan, but now, "I commute in my socks," he said. "I'll take half a day, take this one out sledding - I'm actually excited."

He'll have to wait until school ends for the day to sled with Frida, though. In the upside-down year that is 2020, the once-a-century asterisk, it was New York's public-school children who suffered a loss on Thursday, missing out on the chance of a day off. The city suggested this week that remote learning would quite likely make snow days a thing of the past, perhaps for good.

As heavy snow swept through Philadelphia on Wednesday, the city's students had an urgent request for school officials: a snow day on Thursday.

Sean Gifford, 13, said he was among more than 1,500 students who signed a petition requesting the day off. He said he was thinking especially of students whose internet might be down as a result of the storm.

The petition, which students planned to send to William R. Hite, the Philadelphia superintendent of schools, was housed in a secure Google Doc.

"Students normally work hard," said Sean, a seventh-grader at the Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School."But in a Covid era, it's so much more. We deserve these snow days. They should be treated no different than if it snowed pre-pandemic because, with power lines down in some places and inability to travel for internet, many students simply won't be able to attend school. And I don't think it's fair they should be marked absent."

School officials were unmoved, pointing out the significant investment the district had made in Chromebooks for remote learning.

"While we admire our students taking the initiative to come together and express their views on a given topic, we do not have any plans to change our position on this matter," said Monica Lewis, the district's deputy chief of communications."We do, however, understand that students and teachers need breaks throughout the day, and we encourage them to do so."

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As a powerful nor'easter exited the New York region late Thursday morning and moved into New England, it left behind the biggest snowfall the city had gotten in several years. The quick-moving storm pummeled much of the Northeast with snow, sleet and heavy winds on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Rain Garden FAQs

What do rain gardens do?

On rainy days, our sewer system has to collect the water that goes down the drain in our homes (we call it "wastewater") and the water that falls as rain on our streets and sidewalks (we call it "stormwater"). If it rains enough, our sewers can fill to capacity and a mix of wastewater and stormwater can end up going into our local waterways (we call these events "combined sewer overflows"). Rain gardens are important because they collect and absorb stormwater before it can enter our sewer system. When we prevent stormwater from going into our sewer system, we're reducing the amount of combined sewer overflows that enter our local waterways. Rain gardens are located in areas where they can have the greatest impact on improving the health of surrounding waterways. These gardens also help to cool temperatures, clean the air, promote biodiversity, and beautify neighborhoods.

How does DEP care for rain gardens?

We care for New York City's expansive network of Rain Gardens citywide. We inspect them at least once a week, as well as remove litter and sediment that stormwater may have carried in. We also pull weeds, prune trees and shrubs, and monitor plants to make sure they are thriving.

If you would like help care for rain gardens in your neighborhood, visit Become a Rain Garden Steward.

Do rain gardens attract mosquitoes?

Mosquitoes require a minimum of 72 hours in standing water for larvae development. Rain gardens are designed to drain in 48 hours or less. If your rain garden does not appear to be draining properly, please call 311 or email us at raingardens@dep.nyc.gov.

Do rain gardens prevent people from walking on the sidewalk or block driveways and building entrances?

No, We work with the Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that rain gardens comply with the City's requirements for pedestrian access and safety.

Do rain gardens remove parking?

Most rain gardens are installed in the sidewalk and are designed to have no impact on parking. When larger rain gardens are proposed, we work with DOT work to minimize parking impacts.

Do tree roots crack the sidewalk or interfere with utility lines?

During design and construction, we work with utility companies to ensure that rain gardens will not directly interfere with existing underground and above-ground utility service lines. Older tree roots can break sidewalks because the tree pit is not large enough for the tree roots. But the City's standard rain gardens are at least 10 feet long, which gives tree roots plenty of space to grow.

Contractors have been working on rain gardens in my neighborhood and there are tree guards but no plants. Why are these sites still unfinished?

Construction on rain gardens may begin at different times throughout the year. However, planting of the rain gardens must occur during the spring or fall season when conditions are optimal for planting. Construction on these rain gardens may have begun earlier in order to be ready for the next appropriate planting season.

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Rain Garden FAQs What do rain gardens do? On rainy days, our sewer system has to collect the water that goes down the drain in our homes (we call it "wastewater") and the water that falls as rain on our streets and sidewalks (we call it "stormwater").

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Hurricane Sandy inundated parts of Staten Island, Queens and Lower Manhattan, where sea level rise caused by climate change is threatening homes-and lives.

The three-story house, painted a grayish blue, stood on Fox Beach Avenue in Oakwood Beach, Staten Island. On a clear day in 2015, the house took six to eight hours to demolish. Nathan Kensinger captured it all on film.

"That process of seeing someone's house torn to the ground was really a powerful moment," said Kensinger, a photographer, filmmaker, artist and journalist.

Since Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, Kensinger has documented the struggle in New York communities to recover from the damage wreaked by the storm. His 2018 film Managed Retreat portrayed the demolition of homes bought out by the state government across three city neighborhoods, parts of which soon returned to nature and were teeming with wildlife.

"You'd see deer, rabbits, turkeys and possums wandering around in broad daylight," Kensinger said, amazed at "how quickly nature returned to the places where humans were once living."

Yet for the people who once inhabited these communities, their demolition seems a more grim prospect. As Kensinger captures so strikingly, at a time of climate crisis, for a growing number of New Yorkers, leaving one's home is not a dystopian or distant possibility but a lived reality.

Now, managed retreat has become a de facto part of life in certain areas of New York City, even as officials have not explicitly labeled it as such. Though not all residents have been presented with equal choices in the matter, many on the city's waterfront have voluntarily participated in government-funded home buyout programs, abandoning their longtime residences to seek higher ground.

From what Kensinger witnessed, the city's efforts at retreat have seemed "piecemeal," lacking a "comprehensive plan."

Home buyouts have been a staple of the city's Build it Back program, which seeks to support Sandy-impacted residents with their recovery needs by working with them directly to help repair, rebuild, and elevate their homes-or, when necessary, to relocate entirely.

The city has bought out homes in areas deemed unsuitable for future development due to flood risk, while it has acquired sites it deems suitable for redevelopment of "flood-resilient housing." To date, the city reports, a combination of city, state and federal funds have enabled the buy-out of approximately 800 homes in "communities with the highest level of damage and risk."

Despite the risks, some residents have chosen to stay put.

Sonia Moise, a nurse at St. John's Episcopal Hospital and a Rockaways resident for 42 years, has thought many times about leaving, but decided against it. "If I do leave, not only am I leaving my blood, sweat and tears, but I'm leaving my community," she said. Moise feels almost "an obligation to stay" and see her work in the community through to completion, she said.

At a certain point, however, staying may no longer remain an option for residents like Moise.

As storms worsen and sea levels rise, people may find themselves forced to evacuate from vulnerable waterfront areas. A report by the New York City Panel on Climate Change shows the city could see as much as six feet of sea level rise by 2100.

In that projection, the Regional Planning Association has shown, most of the Rockaways would be subsumed by water, and "more than half of Coney Island's current population could be at risk of permanent inundation."

More than the city's outer boroughs are at risk; prominent parts of lower Manhattan, too, could face detrimental flooding-putting both the major financial institutions lining Wall Street and the nearby public housing complexes lining the Lower East Side in jeopardy. Inevitably, it seems, efforts to safeguard the city's shorelines with seawalls, berms and levees may fail to shield certain high-risk zones from the floods of the future.

Just as the impacts of climate change will not hit the city's communities equally, neither will the costs of retreat. Low-income and marginalized communities in coastal and low-lying areas may struggle far more than big banks to stay afloat.

Whether New Yorkers will retreat, and on what terms-financial and emotional-remains an open question. Answering it may well determine which city communities survive the climate hazards of decades to come.

Recognizing the Time to Retreat

With varying future climate projections, it's not always clear when the time to retreat will arise for city residents. Yet against multiple feet of sea level rise, it is clear that building stronger sea walls and elevating homes won't suffice for many waterfront communities. That's where "managed retreat" provides a promising alternative.

"Managed retreat" is defined by A.R. Siders, an environmental fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, as "the purposeful, coordinated movement of people and assets out of harm's way."

Already, retreat seems likely to pose a critical consideration for coastal U.S. cities from Boston to New Orleans and Miami, as well as for cities abroad. Already, the low-lying Pacific nation of Kiribati has bought land in Fiji to secure future refuge for its citizens as climate change makes their native country increasingly uninhabitable.

Historically, managed retreat has been a response to river flooding, said Patrick McClellan, New York State policy director at the New York League of Conservation Voters, which considers the process a critical tool in climate mitigation and adaptation. McClellan cited the relocation of the then-900 person town of Valmeyer, Illinois in 1993 following the Great Flood of the Mississippi River as an example.

For communities considering retreat, the loss of their property value may provide a motivating factor, especially given the role that home ownership plays in building generational wealth in many U.S. families, along with the reality that high flood risk may make homes uninsurable.

On top of economics, said Radley Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University, retreat comes down to questions of public health and safety. Failing to retreat in certain areas could increase the risks of loss of life from climate disaster. The $19 trillion worth of damage and 43 fatalities that Sandy caused the city in 2012, for instance, could prove minimal compared to what lies ahead.

These risks will likely pose the greatest threat to the city's low-income communities of color, which McClellan called "environmental justice communities," often located on the waterfront and disproportionately vulnerable to sea level rise.

This reality boils down in part to economics. As of 2019, six out of the city's 10 most affordable neighborhoods, those with the lowest median sales prices, were on or by the water.

Build It Back

Launched after Hurricane Sandy decimated the city's waterfront communities, the city's Build It Back program represented a bold effort to accelerate the recovery process, helping residents stay safe in their current homes or find new ones. Three years later, it was clear that the program was falling short of its initial promises.

In 2015, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer called the $ 2.2 billion program part of "a case study in dysfunction."

"Government failed the victims of Sandy," Stringer said. At the time, his audit of the program revealed that the Mayor's Office of Housing Recovery Operations had "failed to properly monitor contractors and paid $6.8 million to them for work that was flawed or incomplete-contributing to extensive delays in the delivery of aid to more than 20,000 people seeking help."

Today, Build it Back continues to face heavy criticism from residents and city officials alike. Many question the program's economic efficiency, while some allege disparate treatment of poor and minority neighborhoods-where households were hit the hardest by Hurricane Sandy-casting doubt on the program's ability to model future strategies for managed retreat.

According to the city's Sandy Funding Tracker, over 99 percent of Build it Back housing applications have received their full benefits. But that rate comes after over half of the more than 20,000 people who originally signed up for assistance effectively dropped out of the program, with flaws in its "basic design structure" causing most of the program's attrition, according to a 2019 report by the city's Office of Housing Recovery Operations and the Center for Urban Research at the City University of New York's Graduate Center. Active applicants or those receiving benefits through the program now total only 8,316.

And not all applicants have been offered the same benefits. The Resilient Edgemere initiative, launched by the city in 2015, limits the Build it Back construction benefits available to residents in a defined "hazard mitigation zone" to home buyouts and offers for relocation, but doesn't offer support to stay in their current homes. For Edgemere residents unable to finance their own home renovations living in this zone, that left little choice in the matter.

Now, the Build It back program is due to be closed out, with Housing Recovery Operations working to finish any ongoing projects.

Some applicants are still waiting to see the program's initial promises through to completion.

One of them is Sonia Moise, the nurse at St. John's Epispocal who has thought many times about leaving but decided against it.

She has lived in her current Edgemere home in the Rockaways for the last 14 years, and was originally denied admittance to the program. After Moise was finally admitted in 2017, Build It Back asked her to vacate her home during renovations for storm resilience and paid to temporarily relocate her to a rental apartment, which in Moise's words, "turned out to be a nightmare."

With home renovations supposedly complete, Moise was told that the city would no longer pay for her rental unit. She returned to her home in March 2019, only to find "a whole host of issues" from mold to leaky pipes and a damaged driveway, which she has since exhausted herself trying to get the city to address.

When asked about Moise's case in March 2019, Matt Vigiano, then-press secretary of the Office of Housing Recovery Operations, told The Wave, a community newspaper covering Rockaway, that "hurricane recovery is not an easy process and can take a toll on the lives of homeowners," and that Build It Back would "continue to work closely" with Moise "to resolve the issues she's brought to our attention."

But Moise says many of the same issues persist. "I believe race and economics had a lot to do with it," said Moise, who is African American.

She emphasized the disparities in the post-Sandy recovery process of more affluent majority-white neighborhoods like Breezy Point on the western end of the peninsula-which was swiftly rebuilt-and low-income majority-minority neighborhoods like her own on the eastern end. Edgemere, which is roughly 87 percent Black and Hispanic, with 30% of residents living below the poverty level, still suffers from Sandy's effects.

"I understand homeowners' frustration in this whole process," said Andrew Olsen, the acting press secretary at Housing Recovery Operations, when asked about Moise's case. "Always, the goal was to try to get people back home as quickly as possible but unfortunately, that doesn't happen at times due to varying issues."

Olsen said he didn't believe there were any racial or economic disparities across neighborhoods in who benefitted from the Build It Back program, adding that "money is spread out throughout the communities that were impacted." He said the data offered by the Sandy Funding Tracker, which breaks down the program's allocation of federal funding by zip code, reflects that.

Based on the tracker, the eastern-most zip code of the Rockaways received $88,024,696 in federal reimbursements for 526 residential projects, whereas the more affluent western-most zip code of the Rockaways received $174,136,725 in federal reimbursements for 585 projects.

Whether or not race and income played into Build It Back, they may well play into the equitability of future and more concerted efforts at managed retreat for city residents. Columbia's Horton speculated that general discrepancies in the lack of funds, government assistance, and information often provided to poor communities of color may make relocation more challenging for them-only a few of a "variety of constraints that prevent people from wanting to retreat."

For Moise, the decision to stay put feels deeply personal. She remains in Far Rockaway, where "her roots are," with the hopes of seeing it flourish in the future. She feels that if "she doesn't [stay and] advocate for her community, then nothing's going to happen."

Future Solutions and Approaches

Facing a future of climate extremes, scientists, government officials, and community groups alike are searching for effective and equitable long-term solutions. Where managed retreat seems appropriate, approaches can range from providing incentives for residents' voluntary relocation at their own cost to funding and coordinating the relocation of entire communities.

Voluntary buyouts "became a very important tool" after Sandy, said Olsen, but they alone can't address future sea level rise. He noted that the city is restricting development in highly flood-prone areas, designated as Special Coastal Risk Districts, including parts of Queens and Staten Island.

These development restrictions reflect a small part of the city's broader efforts to build more sustainable and resilient infrastructure. The city's Climate Resiliency Design guidelines, based on future climate projections reported by the New York City Panel on Climate Change, direct the design, engineering, and construction of capital projects. Also incorporating these projections, the Waterfront Revitalization Program establishes policies for waterfront planning, preservation and development projects.

"There's no silver bullet solution to the impacts of climate change. Recognizing that no two neighborhoods are alike, our approach to climate adaptation is highly tailored to each community," said Jainey Bavishi, director of the Mayor's Office of Resiliency. "As we plan for a hotter, wetter future, we're creating multiple lines of defense using a wide variety of tools-ranging from restoring wetlands to constructing flood walls to limiting density in the highest risk areas."

McClellan, of the New York League of Conservation Voters, called on the city to establish a proactive strategy for managed retreat, instead of waiting for the next disaster to strike and force further relocation. Policymakers, he said, should be "relying on the science" to determine which communities are at the greatest risk from sea level rise in the coming decades and the options available to them.

Given the scale at which retreat may become necessary, McClellan added, lawmakers will have to dramatically increase the funding available for buyout programs. He cited the Environmental Bond Act recently passed by the New York State Legislature, which allocates $3 billion in the state budget for investments in local infrastructure and environmental restoration to prepare communities for future disasters and extreme weather, as a powerful starting point, but said it would be insufficient in the long run.

While McClellan called on policymakers to "step up with the data" and inform communities by stimulating conversation around the possibility of retreat, he also stressed that communities, not officials, should make the final decisions about leaving their homes. Environmental justice organizations, he said, can help facilitate engagement between the two.

"You always want it to be a community-led planning effort rather than a top-down kind of thing" with officials unexpectedly forcing relocation, said McClellan. Leaving one's home, he said, is a deeply personal decision, which scientific reports about sea level rise don't capture.

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In New York City, 'Managed Retreat' Has Become a Grim Reality - Inside Climate News

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The three-story house, painted a grayish blue, stood on Fox Beach Avenue in Oakwood Beach, Staten Island. On a clear day in 2015, the house took six to eight hours to demolish. Nathan Kensinger captured it all on film. "That process of seeing someone's house torn to the ground was really a powerful moment," said [...]

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The water cycle in NYC!

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Explore NYC’s amazing water resources! Using staff interviews, in the field footage, interactive maps and historical images, you will discover where our drinking water comes from, what happens after it’s flushed, and how we can protect our waterways.

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PBS NOVA: Inside the Megastorm (November 2012)

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Convection - Warm Water Rises / Cold Water Sinks!

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Convection - Warm Water Rises / Cold Water Sinks!

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Warm Air Rises - Cold Water Sinks, Warm Water Rises

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Density For Kids - Information, Examples, Definition & Formula

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Information about density for kids. Free lesson: learn how it is measured, the definition, formula and SI unit for density.

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Why Does Altitude Affect Temperature? |James May's Q&A | Earth Science

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What is extreme weather? | Decomplicated

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Newsela | How the National Weather Service affects our lives

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The National Weather Service is the nation's official source for weather information.

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By: "The infographics show"

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The Water Cycle | Educational Video for Kids

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By: peakaboo kids

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The Water Cycle | The Dr. Binocs Show | Learn Videos For Kids

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Wind

What is wind?
Wind is air in motion. It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Since the earth's surface is made of various land and water formations, it absorbs the sun's radiation unevenly. Two factors are necessary to specify wind: speed and direction.

What causes the wind to blow?
As the sun warms the Earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the Earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow.

What is a windstorm? A windstorm is just a storm with high winds or violent gusts but little or no rain.

What is a gust front?
A gust front is the leading edge of cool air rushing down and out from a thunderstorm. There are two main reasons why the air flows out of some thunderstorms so rapidly. The primary reason is the presence of relatively dry air in the lower atmosphere. This dry air causes some of the rain falling through it to evaporate, which cools the air. Since cool air sinks (just as warm air rises), this causes a down-rush of air that spreads out at the ground. The edge of this rapidly spreading cool pool of air is the gust front. The second reason is that the falling precipitation produces a drag on the air, forcing it downward. If the wind following the gust front is intense and damaging, the windstorm is known as a downburst.

What is a derecho? What is a downburst?
A downburst is created by an area of significantly rain-cooled air that, after hitting ground level, spreads out in all directions producing strong winds. Unlike winds in a tornado, winds in a downburst are directed outwards from the point where it hits land or water. Dry downbursts are associated with thunderstorms with very little rain, while wet downbursts are created by thunderstorms with high amounts of rainfall.
A derecho is a widespread and long-lived windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms. They can produce significant damage to property and pose a serious threat life, primarily by downburst winds. To be classified as a derecho, the path length of the storm has to be at least 280 miles long. Widths may vary from 50-300 miles. Derechos are usually not associated with a cold front, but a stationary front. They occur mostly in July, but can occur at anytime during the spring and summer.
What is the jet stream?

The jet stream is a fast flowing, river of air found in the atmosphere at around 12 km above the surface of the Earth just under the tropopause. They form at the boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as of the polar region and the warmer air to the south. Because of the effect of the Earth's rotation the streams flow west to east, propagating in a serpentine or wave-like manner at lower speeds than that of the actual wind within the flow.

What is a monsoon?
A monsoon is a seasonal wind, found especially in Asia that reverses direction between summer and winter and often brings heavy rains. In the summer, a high pressure area lies over the Indian Ocean while a low exists over the Asian continent. The air masses move from the high pressure over the ocean to the low over the continent, bringing moisture-laden air to south Asia. During winter, the process is reversed and a low sits over the Indian Ocean while a high lies over the Tibetan plateau so air flows down the Himalaya and south to the ocean. The migration of trade winds and westerlies also contributes to the monsoons. Smaller monsoons take place in equatorial Africa, northern Australia, and, to a lesser extent, in the southwestern United States.

What are the Santa Ana Winds?
The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry down-slope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. Santa Ana winds blow mostly in autumn and winter, but can arise at other times of the year. They can range from hot to cold, depending on the prevailing temperatures in the source regions, the Great Basin and upper Mojave Desert. The winds are known especially for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall, and are infamous for fanning regional wildfires. For these reasons, they are sometimes known as the "devil winds" across Southern California.

What are the global wind patterns? The equator receives the Sun's direct rays. Here, air is heated and rises, leaving low pressure areas behind. Moving to about thirty degrees north and south of the equator, the warm air from the equator begins to cool and sink. Between thirty degrees latitude and the equator, most of the cooling sinking air moves back to the equator. The rest of the air flows toward the poles.

The trade winds are just air movements toward the equator. They are warm, steady breezes that blow almost continuously. The Coriolis Effect makes the trade winds appear to be curving to the west, whether they are traveling to the equator from the south or north. What are the trade winds?

The doldrums is an area of calm weather. The trade winds coming from the south and the north meet near the equator. These converging trade winds produce general upward winds as they are heated, so there are no steady surface winds.
What are the doldrums?

Between thirty and sixty degrees latitude, the winds that move toward the poles appear to curve to the east. Because winds are named from the direction in which they originate, these winds are called prevailing westerlies. Prevailing westerlies in the Northern Hemisphere are responsible for many of the weather movements across the United States and Canada.

What are the prevailing westerlies?
At about sixty degrees latitude in both hemispheres, the prevailing westerlies join with the polar easterlies to reduce upward motion. The polar easterlies form when the atmosphere over the poles cools. This cool air then sinks and spreads over the surface. As the air flows away from the poles, it is turned to the west by the Coriolis effect. Again, because these winds begin in the east, they are called easterlies.

What are the polar easterlies?
On a warm summer day along the coast, this differential heating of land and sea leads to the development of local winds called sea breezes. As air above the land surface is heated by radiation from the Sun, it expands and begins to rise, being lighter than the surrounding air. To replace the rising air, cooler air is drawn in from above the surface of the sea. This is the sea breeze, and can offer a pleasant cooling influence on hot summer afternoons.

What is a sea breeze?
A land breeze occurs at night when the land cools faster than the sea. In this case, it is air above the warmer surface water that is heated and rises, pulling in air from the cooler land surface.

What is a land breeze?
Wind is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world. It's often one of the least expensive forms of renewable power available. Some experts say it can sometimes be the cheapest form of any kind of power. Generating power from the wind leaves no dangerous waste products behind. Best of all, its supply is unlimited.

Windmills work because they slow down the speed of the wind. The wind flows over the airfoil shaped blades causing lift, like the effect on airplane wings, causing them to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator to produce electricity.
How is wind helpful to Earth?

Many local wind systems have their own names. Here's a few! How do windmills work?

What are some different types of wind names?

chinook-(westerly wind off the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains)santa ana-(easterly towards Southern California )
scirocco-(southerly from North Africa to southern Europe) mistral-(northwesterly from central France to Mediterranean)
marin-(southeasterly from Mediterranean to France)
bora-(northeasterly from eastern Europe to Italy)

Beaufort number

Wind speed
MPH

Wind Speed
Knots

Description

Sea conditions

Land conditions

10

55-63

48-55

Storm

Very high waves.
The sea surface is white

Trees uprooted. Considerable structural damage

gregale-(northeasterly from Greece)
etesian-(northwesterly from Greece)
libeccio-(southwesterly towards Italy)
Beaufort Scale
The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure for the intensity of the weather based mainly on wind power. The scale was created by the British naval commander Sir Francis Beaufort around 1806.

Wind Activities
Lesson Plan: Here is a great activity the shows students how the winds work across the globe.

Wind Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows the kids to find out what's in the wind. The kids will be very surprised at what they see!

Anemometer Experiment: Here is another great experiment that lets kids make an anemometer or wind vane.
Pinwheel Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a pinwheel to see how wind is created.
Windsock Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a windsock.
Pressure Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows how pressure is created in our atmosphere by sucking an egg in a bottle. This is a very cool experiment!

Make A Barometer Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.Evaporation Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows kids how evaporation takes place.

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Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

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Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

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Water molecules are heated by the sun and turn into water vapor that rises into the air through a process called evaporation. Next, the water vapor cools and forms clouds, through condensation. Over time, the clouds become heavy because those cooled water particles have turned into water droplets. When the clouds become extremely heavy with water droplets, the water falls back to earth through precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc). The process continues in a cyclical manner.
Learn more about Earth's water cycle on the Precipitation Education website.

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How does the water cycle work? | NASA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission

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Water molecules are heated by the sun and turn into water vapor that rises into the air through a process called evaporation. Next, the water vapor cools and forms clouds, through condensation. Over time, the clouds become heavy because those cooled water particles have turned into water droplets.

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Climate and Earth's Energy BalancePart A: Solar Energy and the Water Cycle

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Climate and Earth's Energy BalancePart A: Solar Energy and the Water Cycle

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Part A: Solar Energy and the Water Cycle

To start the investigation of Earth's energy balance, you will begin by taking an in-depth look at a familiar process known as the water cycle. Earth's water supply is recycled in a continuous process known as the water, or hydrologic hydrologic cycle: the process of evaporation, vertical and horizontal transport of vapor, condensation, precipitation, and the flow of water from continents to oceans. , cycle. Water molecules continuously move from location to location in this cycle. The water cycle is important to weather and climate and, ultimately, to all life on Earth.

The water cycle is driven primarily by the energy from the sun. This solar energy drives the cycle by evaporating water from the oceans, lakes, rivers, and even the soil. Other water moves from plants to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration. As liquid water evaporates or transpires, it forms water vapor and clouds, where water droplets eventually gain enough mass to fall back to Earth as precipitation. The precipitation then becomes run-off or ground water, and works its way—over various timescales—back into the surface reservoirs. The water cycle is essentially a closed system, meaning that the volume of water that is in the hydrosphere today is the same amount of water that has always been present in the Earth system.

Begin this lab by watching the following short NASA animation demonstrating the path of one water molecule through the water cycle. While watching the animation, make a list and keep track of all the places that the molecule travels. Note: In the NASA animation, the depiction of the water reservoirs, such as underground aquifersaquifers: underground water reservoirs that form in the spaces and cracks between rocks, sand, or gravel, where water travels relatively easily. , has been simplified to show the molecule pathways.

Courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Source:
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NASA

As discussed earlier, the water cycle not only redistributes water around Earth, it also absorbs and redistributes solar energy between locations. Latent heatingLatent heating: the energy required to change a substance to a higher state of matter (solid to liquid, or liquid to gas). This same energy is released from the substance when the change of state is reversed (gas to liquid, or liquid to solid). of Earth's atmosphere occurs as energy, primarily from the sun, causes liquid water to transform to another phase. As this occurs, liquid water absorbs energy, causing it to evaporate and form water vapor. The process of evaporation absorbs tremendous amounts of incoming solar energy. Through the process of latent heating, energy is transferred into the atmosphere when the water vapor condenses during the formation of clouds. For example, think of how a puddle, following a rainstorm, keeps a sidewalk cool until it is completely dried by the sunshine. The incoming solar radiation is being used to drive the process of evaporation. Once the water is gone, the sidewalk begins to absorb solar radiation and heat up. If you touch the sidewalk with bare feet you can feel this sensible heatsensible heat: the excess radiative energy that has passed from Earth's surface to the atmosphere through advection, conduction, and convection processes. .

A second mechanism for the redistribution of thermal energy is the process ofconvectionconvection: the transfer of thermal energy by the movement of heated material from one place to another. , which is the driving force behind weather. Together, these two processes account for a significant amount of the Earth's radiation budget. In total, energy leaves Earth's surface through three processes: evaporation and condensation (or latent heating and cooling), convection, and emission of thermal infrared radiation. Of these three processes, 25 percent of the energy that leaves the surface of the Earth is through evaporation and condensation. An additional five percent, leaves the surface through convection. As you complete the following lab, look for signs of these two important heat transfer processes.

Overview:

In this lab you will build a physical model of the hydrologic, or water cycle.

Lab Activity Instructions

1. Set up the equipment as show in the figure, right, or picture below.

In the image below, the set up has been modified to include a small jar lid to catch the precipitation. Note the plastic wrap "lid" of the container is placed loosely on the box and held in place with rubber bands. A ziplock bag has been substituted for the insulated cup.

2. Cut a hole large enough to fit the insulated cup in the "lid" of your aquarium or clear plastic shoebox. Or, if you are using plastic wrap, you can just place the ice in a baggie and put it directly on the plastic wrap cover.

3. Add enough water to fill the container with water to a depth of 2-5 cm. Optional: Add several drops of food coloring to make it easier to see the water.

4. Position a bag of sand or gravel at one end of the aquarium. The sand / gravel should be above the water level.

5. Add a small jar lid or bowl to the "land area" on top of the sand and under the ice.

6. Fill a cup or ziplock bag with ice and place it in the opening in the lid (if using cardboard) or on top of the plastic wrap.

7. Place a focused lamp, such as a desk lamp, so that it heats the water at the other end of the aquarium or box. If the lid of the box is clear, shine the light through the lid; otherwise aim it at the water through the side of the aquarium.

8. Turn on the lamp, or place the apparatus in the sun, and watch the water cycle occur.

Once you have completed this lab answer the Discussion and Stop and Think questions below.
Discuss

Once you have produced your water cycle model, critique its effectiveness and validity. Which parts of the water cycle were clearly demonstrated with this lab and which parts were not well represented? How might you document and share your demonstration with other students? Draw a sketch of you water cycle model and add words to describe the processes taking place in the model.

Stop and Think

1. Relate each part of your model to the water cycle diagram at the top right of this page. For example, the lamp represented the sun. What other Earth system processes were demonstrated in this lab?

2. What was the energy source for the water cycle?

3. How does the water cycle "transport" energy?

4. What do you think would happen if you added a second or even third lamp?

5. Describe what you think would happen if you left the water cycle in a shoebox in the dark for several hours.

Optional Extension

Additional background reading about the water cycle and weather can be found at the following links:

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Part A: Solar Energy and the Water Cycle To start the investigation of Earth's energy balance, you will begin by taking an in-depth look at a familiar process known as the water cycle. Earth's water ...

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Amplify Science

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Pour yourself a glass of water and take a sip. Did you know that the water you've just swallowed is the same water that wooly mammoths, King Tutankhamun and the first humans drank? That's because Earth has been recycling water for over 4 billion years!

The world's water moves between lakes, rivers, oceans, the atmosphere and the land in an ongoing cycle called - you guessed it! - the water cycle. As it goes through this continuous system, it can be a liquid (water), a gas (vapour) or a solid (ice).

So, are all you budding young geographers ready to learn some splashing new facts? Then join NG KiDS as we take a look at the different stages of the wonderful water cycle...

Energy from the sun heats up the surface of the Earth, causing the temperature of the water in our rivers, lakes and oceans to rise. When this happens, some of the water "evaporates" into the air, turning into a gas called " vapour". Plants and trees also lose water to the atmosphere through their leaves. This process is known as " transpiration ".

As water vapour rises up high into the sky, it cools and turns back into a liquid, forming clouds. This process is called " condensation ". Currents high up in the air move these clouds around the globe.

The water cycle is also known as the "hydrologic cycle".

Precipitation

When too much water has condensed, the water droplets in the clouds become too big and heavy for the air to hold them. And so they fall back down to Earth as rain, snow, hail or sleet, a process known as " precipitation ".

Collection

The fallen precipitation is then "collected" in bodies of water - such as rivers, lakes and oceans - from where it will eventually evaporate back into the air, beginning the cycle all over again. How it is collected, depends on where it lands...

Some will fall directly into lakes, rivers or the sea, from where it will evaporate and begin the cycle all over again.

If the water falls on vegetation, it may evaporate from leaves back into the air, or trickle down to the ground. Some of this water may then be taken up by the plant roots in the earth.

In cold climates, the precipitation may build up on land as snow, ice or glaciers. If temperatures rise, the ice will melt to liquid water and then soak into the ground, or flow into rivers or the ocean.

Water that reaches land directly may flow across the ground and collect in the oceans, rivers or lakes. This water is called " surface run-off ". Some of the precipitation will instead soak (or "infiltrate") into the soil, from where it will slowly move through the ground until eventually reaching a river or the ocean.

And there you have it, gang - the ongoing water cycle!

Water can change from a solid to a gas, without becoming a liquid first. Through this process of "sublimation" our planet"s ice can evaporate directly into the air without melting!

Be sure to check out our water conservation primary resource. Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike, show children 25 ways to help keep our oceans, rivers and streams clean...

Illustration: Getty Images UK

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The Water Cycle! - National Geographic Kids

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Earth has been recycling water for 4 billion years! Learn about the water cycle right here at NG Kids with clear diagrams and pictures.

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Projected Changes to the Water Cycle due to Climate Change

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Projected Changes to the Water Cycle due to Climate Change

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What's happening in NYC is shown on the RIGHT side of the diagram

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Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States 2009 Report Legacy site

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The water cycle exhibits many changes as the Earth warms. Wet and dry areas respond differently.

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Droughts, Floods, and Water Vapor - Oh My!

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Droughts, Floods, and Water Vapor - Oh My!

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Understanding the earth's water cycle can help us understand how a warming climate will intensify droughts and floods.

A main contributor to the intensity of a drought or flooding event is how much water vapor can be held in the atmosphere. In a warming climate, additional heat increases the rate of evaporation of water from open bodies of water, plants, and soil. This rapid evaporation gathers more moisture in the atmosphere for precipitation, while at the same time drying the land areas below. This accelerated, imbalanced water cycle can lead to more frequent and heavier bouts of extreme precipitation for some regions while leaving others dry.

Along with creating more intense droughts and floods, the ability of the earth's atmosphere to hold more water vapor can also amplify the warming effect of climate change. This is because water vapor, the gaseous form of water, is considered a greenhouse gas. As such, it traps heat that is trying to escape from the earth's surface and increases the warming potential of earth's atmosphere.

The following graphics from the US EPA's report, Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action show the projected percentage change in annual mean precipitation and projected change in the intensity of extreme precipitation events under scenarios in which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced (mitigation) or not reduced (reference) over time.
Learn more:
For an in-depth look at the science linking more frequent future intense droughts with climate change, check out NASA's "Megadroughts Projected for American West" video.

For an in-depth look at the science linking more frequent future flooding events with climate change, check out NASA's "IPCC Projections of Temperature and Precipitation in the 21st Century" video.

NOAA. 2014. "Heavy downpours more intense, frequent in a warmer world." Accessed July 24, 2018. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/heavy-downpours-more-intense-frequent-warmer-world.

US EPA. 2015 "Climate Action Benefits: Global Temperature Change." Accessed July 24, 2018. http://www2.epa.gov/cira/climate-action-benefits-methods-analysis#temperature-projections.

US EPA. 2015. "Climate Action Benefits: Methods of Analysis: Precipitation in the U.S." Accessed July 24, 2018. http://www2.epa.gov/cira/climate-action-benefits-methods-analysis#precipitation-projections.

US EPA. 2015. "Climate Impacts on Water Resources." Accessed July 24, 2018. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-water-resources_.html

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Droughts, Floods, and Water Vapor - Oh My!

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A main contributor to the intensity of a drought or flooding event is how much water vapor can be held in the atmosphere. In a warming climate, additional heat increases the rate of evaporation of water from open bodies of water, plants, and soil.

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This is a letter to your families that explains what our new unit is all about. If you read through it with a family member be sure to mention that in your slides!

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By

What is heat?

Heat is the transfer of thermal energy from one physical system to another system or from one region in a physical system to another region. A system, in such an instance, might be a mug of coffee, room full of air, cast-iron frying pan, mountain lake, piece of scrap metal, or any number of other physical objects or substances, including an energy source such as a campfire or the sun.

Thermal energy tends to move from an object or region with a higher temperature to one with a lower temperature. For example, if Object A and Object B are connected, and Object A has a higher temperature than Object B, heat moves from Object A to Object B, causing Object A's temperature to decrease and Object B's temperature to increase. This also means that Object A's average kinetic energy is decreasing and Object B's average kinetic energy is increasing.

Heat plays a critical role in the lives of humans and other organisms -- all of which are systems. It gives us comfort by warming our skin, while helping to maintain optimal body temperatures. For humans, heat helps in preparing foods, warming homes and manufacturing goods. Heat generated by sunlight helps plants to mature and develop fruit, and heat also helps to shape local and global weather patterns.

The term heat is sometimes confused with the term temperature, although they have distinctly different meanings. Temperature is the measure of the average kinetic energy of a system's atomic particles, whereas heat is concerned with the transfer of thermal energy, which results from the kinetic energy generated by moving particles. Temperatures can be measured in Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin. Heat can be measured in joules (J), calories (cal) or British thermal units (BTU):

Temperature measures the average kinetic energy of atomic particles, while heat is more about the transfer of thermal energy.

Joule. The standard unit of heat in the International System of Units. One joule is equal to 1 newton multiplied by 1 meter (J = N ⋅ m). A joule can also be expressed by the formula J = kg ⋅ m² ⋅ s⁻², where kg is kilograms and s is seconds.

Calorie. The amount of thermal energy transfer required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of pure liquid water by 1 degree Celsius at sea level. One calorie is equal to about 4.18 J.

BTU. The amount of thermal energy transfer required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of pure liquid water by 1 degree Fahrenheit at sea level. One BTU is equal to about 1,055.06 J.

When two systems reach the same temperature -- that is, their kinetic energy evens out -- they are said to be in a state of thermal equilibrium. For example, if you put an ice cube into a cup of hot tea, the tea's heat transfers to the ice cube, causing the tea to cool and the ice cube to melt. The tea and melted water eventually reach the same temperature, resulting in a state of thermal equilibrium.

In this example, heat is transferred to the ground via radiation, which transfers heat to the air by conduction. Air then rises due to the convection process.

Types of heat transfer

The way in which thermal energy is transferred within or between systems depends on the type of system and its physical state. Heat transfer can occur in one of three ways:

1. Conduction. Heat by conduction takes place when two systems are in direct contact and the temperature of one system is higher than the temperature of the other. Because temperatures tend to equalize across connected physical systems, thermal energy travels from the warmer system to the cooler one until both systems reach thermal equilibrium. For example, if a blacksmith immerses a hot iron in a tub of cold water, the iron's heat is transferred to the water, causing the iron to cool and the water to heat. If the iron is left in long enough, the iron and water eventually reach the same temperature.

2. Convection. Heat by convection occurs when the motion of a liquid or gas carries thermal energy from a warmer region within a system to a cooler region. The liquid or gas circulates, with the warmer substance moving upward and the cooler substance moving downward. A good example of convection is a room that contains a wood-burning stove. As the stove heats the air around it, the warm air rises toward the ceiling, and the cool air near the ceiling sinks toward the floor, causing the air to circulate around the room. Heat convection, along with conduction, is believed to take place inside the Earth's mantle, transferring thermal energy from the outer core to the crust.

3. Radiation. Heat by radiation occurs when an energy source transfers thermal energy to another system via electromagnetic (EM) waves. A common example of radiated heat is infrared (IR) energy as it strikes a surface. For example, sunlight emits IR radiation that warms the Earth when it hits the planet's surface, much like a campfire warms the bodies of people sitting around it. Radiation does not require an intervening medium, such as the Earth's atmosphere. EM waves can travel through a vacuum, which is why the sun is able to warm the Earth.

Learn how to calculate data center cooling requirements, and explore liquid cooling vs. air cooling in the data center.

Continue Reading About heat

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What is heat? | Definition from TechTarget

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Heat is everywhere around you. Learn what heat is, how it behaves and how it differs from temperature.