# data[].attributes.body
Log in to your EPIC account and search for these books!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn more about the science of dangerous weather. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and thunderstorms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | What's the difference between weather and climate?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather refers to short-term conditions in the atmosphere. Climate refers to conditions over longer periods of time, usually 30 years or more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Record heat and cold touch every corner of the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From Maine to Florida, record-breaking high and low temperatures have hit the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
All thunderstorms produce lightning and are dangerous. If you hear the sound of thunder, then you are in danger from lightning. Lightning kills between 75 to 100 people each year and being outdoors in the most dangerous place to be. Always listen to the radio and television for the latest information and instructions for your area.

A THUNDERSTORM WATCH means a thunderstorm is possible for your area.

A THUNDERSTORM WARNING means a thunderstorm is taking place in your area.

IF YOU'RE OUTDOORS:

Keep an eye at the sky. Look for darkening skies, flashes of lightning, or increasing winds. Lightning often proceeds rain, so don't wait for the rain to begin. If you hear the sound of thunder, go to a safe place immediately.

The best place to go is a sturdy building or a car, but make sure the windows in the car are shut. Avoid sheds, picnic areas, baseball dugouts and bleachers.

If there is no shelter around you, stay away from trees. Crouch down in the open area, keeping twice as far away from a tree as far as it is tall. Put your feet together and place your hands over your ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder.

If you're with a group of people stay about 15 feet from each other.

Stay out of water. It's a great conductor of electricity. Swimming, wading, snorkeling and scuba diving are not safe. Also, don't stand in puddles.

Avoid metal. Stay away from clotheslines, fences, and drop your backpacks because they often have metal on them.

If you're playing an outdoor activity, wait at least 30 minutes after the last observed lightning strike or thunder.

IF YOU'RE INDOORS:

Avoid water. It's a great conductor of electricity, so do not take a shower, wash your hands, wash dishes or do laundry.

Do not use a corded telephone. Lightning may strike exterior phone lines.

Do not use electric equipment like computers and appliances during a storm.

Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches.

IF SOMEONE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING:

Call for help. Call 9-1-1 or send for help immediately.

The injured person does not carry an electrical charge, so it is okay to touch them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lightning

What is lightning?
Lightning is a bright flash of electricity produced by a thunderstorm. All thunderstorms produce lightning and are very dangerous. If you hear the sound of thunder, then you are in danger from lightning. Lightning kills and injures more people each year than hurricanes or tornadoes; between 75 to 100 people.

What causes lightning?
Lightning is an electric current. Within a thundercloud way up in the sky, many small bits of ice (frozen raindrops) bump into each other as they move around in the air. All of those collisions create an electric charge. After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges. The positive charges or protons form at the top of the cloud and the negative charges or electrons form at the bottom of the cloud. Since opposites attract, that causes a positive charge to build up on the ground beneath the cloud. The grounds electrical charge concentrates around anything that sticks up, such as mountains, people, or single trees. The charge coming up from these points eventually connects with a charge reaching down from the clouds and - zap - lightning strikes!

Have you ever rubbed your feet across carpet and then touched a metal door handle? If so, then you know that you can get shocked! Lightning works in the same way.

Click Here to see where lightning is currently striking across the U.S.
Lightning is approximately 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is six times hotter than the surface of the sun!
How hot is lightning?

Lightning seems to be clear or a white-yellow color, but it really depends on the background.
What color is lightning?

Thunder is caused by lightning. When a lightning bolt travels from the cloud to the ground it actually opens up a little hole in the air, called a channel. Once then light is gone the air collapses back in and creates a sound wave that we hear as thunder. The reason we see lightning before we hear thunder is because light travels faster than sound!

What causes thunder?
If you see dark clouds, then lightning could be present, but the best thing you can do is to listen for thunder. If you hear thunder, then you need to go indoors or get in a car. Don't be outside, where lightning could strike! If your hair stands on end or your skin starts to tingle, lightning maybe about to strike. Get down on your hands and knees and keep your head tucked in. Do not lay flat, because it can give lightning a better chance of strike you.

How do you know if lightning is nearby?
Within those distant thunderstorms, the lightning bolts can be seen as much as 100 miles from us, depending on the height of the bolt, the clarity of the air, and our elevation. Thunder, in comparison, has a much shorter range of detection - usually less than 15 miles in a quiet rural setting and under 5 miles in a noisy city environment.

How far away can you see lightning and hear thunder?
All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning. Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below.

Why are you less likely to see static electricity in the summer?
In the summer, our dew points are much higher due to warm and humid air coming from the Gulf of Mexico and that is why we have humid weather. In the winter, our dew points are much lower due to cold and direr air coming from Canada. The lower the dew point the better it is to create static electricity, so that's why you see it more in the winter. Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings. These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage. If you're the tallest object, then lighting can strike you. Lightning is the second weather related killed.
What is cloud-to-ground lightning?

Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers.

Intercloud lightning is less common. It's when a lightning strike occurs when there are positive and negative charges within different clouds and the strike travels in the air between them.

What is intracloud lightning?
Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light. They can have several branches. Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air. This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm.

What is intercloud lightning?

Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds.

What is forked lightning?
Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead.

High-altitude lightning has been given other names such as "red sprites," "green elves," and "blue jets." This form of lightning appears as brightly colored flashes, high above thunderstorms. You can't see these types of lightning from the ground. What is sheet lightning?

Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks.
What is heat lightning?

Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading.

What is high-altitude lightning?
Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. It usually appears as a reddish, luminous ball, but can come in any color. Ball lightning is usually spherical in shape and about one foot in diameter. Hissing noises originate from such balls and they sometimes make a loud noise when they explode.

What is ribbon lightning?

St. Elmo's Fire appears as a blue or greenish glow above pointed objects on the ground. It is created when tiny positively charged sparks reach up in response to negatively charges in the air or clouds above the ground. If a thunderstorm is nearby, St. Elmo's Fire might be seen right before a lightning strike.

What is chain or bead lightning?
Anvil lightning is a type of lightning referred to as "the bolt from the blue" because it often appears suddenly from a seemingly cloudless sky. A bolt at the top of a thunderstorm arcs away from the main cloud and strikes the ground where the skies above often appear clear.

What is ball lightning?
Yes, you can use thunder to tell how far away a storm is. Next time you see a storm, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder. Take the number of seconds and divide by 5 and that will tell you how far away the storm is in miles. For example: If you counted 10 seconds between the lightning and the thunder, the lightning is 2 miles away!

What is St. Elmo's Fire?

What is anvil lightning?

Can you tell how far away a storm is?

Know the Lingo

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH - A severe thunderstorm (damaging winds of 58 miles per hour or more, or 1" hail in diameter or greater) is likely to develop in your area.

PROTONS - They are particles with a positive charge. SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING - A severe thunderstorm (damaging winds of 58 miles per hour or more, or hail three-fourths of an inch in diameter or greater) is taking place in your area.
ELECTRONS - They are particles with a negative charge.

STATIC ELECTRICITY - It is a form of electricity that is created when an object has too many electrons, giving it a negative charge.

LEADERS - A channel of charged air created by excess electrons in a thunderstorm cloud. A leader reaches from the cloud to the ground below, looking for positive charges.

RETURN STROKE - It's an electrical charge that travels from the ground to a thundercloud. This return stroke releases tremendous energy, bright light and thunder.

IF YOU'RE INDOORS: Avoid water. It's a great conductor of electricity, so do not take a shower, wash your hands, wash dishes or do laundry. Do not use a corded telephone. Lightning may strike exterior phone lines. Do not use electric equipment like computers and appliances during a storm. Stay away from windows and doors and stay off porches.
STREAMERS - A channel of charged air created by protons on the ground. They are created when leaders are created and reach from the ground to the sky looking for a leader to connect with.
IF SOMEONE IS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING: Call for help. Call 9-1-1 or send for help immediately. The injured person does not carry an electrical charge, so it is okay to touch them.

Know the Facts
A lightning flash is no more than one inch wide.

What we see as a flash of lightning may actually be four different strokes in exactly the same place, one right after another. That's why lightning appears to flicker.
Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area.

Lightning Safety Tips

IF YOU'RE OUTDOORS: Keep an eye at the sky. Look for darkening skies, flashes of lightning, or increasing winds. Lightning often proceeds rain, so don't wait for the rain to begin. If you hear the sound of thunder, go to a safe place immediately. The best place to go is a sturdy building or a car, but make sure the windows in the car are shut. Avoid sheds, picnic areas, baseball dugouts and bleachers. If there is no shelter around you, stay away from trees. Crouch down in the open area, keeping twice as far away from a tree as far as it is tall. Put your feet together and place your hands over your ears to minimize hearing damage from thunder. If you're with a group of people stay about 15 feet from each other. Stay out of water, because it's a great conductor of electricity. Swimming, wading, snorkeling and scuba diving are not safe. Also, don't stand in puddles and avoid metal. Stay away from clotheslines, fences, and drop your backpacks because they often have metal on them. If you're playing an outdoor activity, wait at least 30 minutes after the last observed lightning strike or thunder. Lightning Activities Lightning Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows kids to make lightning in their mouth. It's a great way for them to understand how lightning works.Static Electricity Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to learn about static electricity by sticking a balloon to a wall. This teaches kids about the positive and negative charges and where they come from.

Static Electricity Experiment: Here is another static electricity experiment that bends water. This teaches kids about the positive and negative charges and where they come from.
Static Electricity Experiment: Here is yet another static electricity experiment with using a balloon and your hair. This teaches kids about the positive and negative charges and where they come from.
Thunder Experiment: This experiment allows kids to make thunder, in a way that allows them to understand how it is made by lightning.
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.