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2023 Rules PDFs for Division B and C are available at the links below! Access your free copy of the 2023 Rules starting at 9:00 am CT on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. For Division B Rules, click here. For Division C Rules, click here. See you then!

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Science Olympiad Wikipedia Page

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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NOAA
Go to Resources in Menu > sections on Weather and Atmosphere, Climate

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Meteorology - Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki

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Meteorology is a current weather and climate-based event designed to test students' basic understanding of the meteorological principles and ability to interpret and analyze meteorological data. It has a main focus topic each year, which rotates between Climate, Everyday Weather, and Severe Storms. Basic knowledge of fronts and air systems, among other common Meteorology topics, is suggested for every year, although the topic rotates every year between three topics. It is currently only an event in Division B, and no equivalent exists for Division C.

The event is designed for up to 2 people. In 2021, each team is allowed to bring two front-back note sheets and 2 calculators of any type to the competition.

Event Rotation

The focus of Meteorology rotates between three topics (everyday weather, severe storms, and climate), each of which spends one year as the focus before being replaced by the next topic in the rotation.

Basic Types of Clouds

Low-level Clouds

Low-level clouds are found at altitudes lower than 6,500 feet. There is no prefix for a low-level cloud. They are usually composed of water droplets (sometimes supercooled) but can be composed of ice crystals during the winter.

(Fair Weather) Cumulus: puffy, light clouds with plenty of space between each other; usually signifies good weather, usually brings little to no precipitation, but can turn into storm clouds like cumulonimbus clouds; name means "heaped" in Latin; low altitude cloud

Stratus: horizontally-layered grey kinds of clouds; may bring small amounts of precipitation; name means "layered" in Latin; low altitude cloud

Stratocumulus: dark, rounded masses of clouds that are usually in groups/layers, occasionally there will be a break in clouds; generally little to no precipitation; low altitude cloud

Middle-level Clouds

Middle-level clouds are found at altitudes between 6,500 and 20,000 feet. They are given the prefix alto-, which means "high". They are composed of water droplets (sometimes supercooled) and/or ice crystals.

Altostratus: layer clouds thinner than stratus, but thicker than cirrostratus, sun and moon are somewhat visible; light precipitation, but little of it reaches the ground; middle altitude cloud

Altocumulus: globular clouds in layers/patches, may signify a thunderstorm to happen later in the day; middle altitude cloud

High-level Clouds

High-level clouds are found at altitudes above 20,000 feet. They are given the prefix cirro-, which means "curl". They are composed mostly of ice crystals.

Cirrus: thin, feathery wisps of clouds; also known as "mares' tails," and while the precipitation it releases evaporates before it reaches the ground, it may signify the arrival of precipitation; high altitude cloud

Cirrostratus: thin, sheet-like, high-level clouds, quite transparent (sun/moon easily seen), halos very common around sun and moon; high altitude cloud

Cirrocumulus: light, puffy, short-lived clouds; high altitude cloud

Multi-level Clouds

Multi-level clouds exhibit a large vertical extent, covering multiple altitudes (high, medium, low) at a time.

(Poor weather) Cumulonimbus: huge, anvil-shaped vertical cloud, can produce thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other dangerous storms, may form along squall lines, often brings a lot of heavy precipitation; bottom of the cloud is at low altitudes and extends upwards to high altitudes

Nimbostratus: dark layer clouds; produce light to moderate precipitation over a wide area; low to middle altitude cloud

Basic Meteorological Information

Although the topic for Meteorology changes from year to year, one should know certain information that serves as a basis for understanding the specifics of each topic.

The Atmosphere

For more information about the Atmosphere, such as its origins and its relation to local wind patterns, please see Meteorology/Everyday Weather#The Atmosphere and Meteorology/Climate#Earth's Atmosphere.

The Layers of the Atmosphere

The layers of the atmosphere from bottom to top are as follows:

The troposphere is where most weather patterns occur.

Instruments and Diagrams

For more information about meteorological instruments and diagrams, see Meteorology/Everyday Weather#Weather Technology.

Event Information

The event allows two double-sided sheets of paper with notes (written/typed etc.) and two stand-alone calculators of any type.

Personal resources for studying prior to the competition are not restricted. Participants should have some sort of Meteorology textbook that has information about all three topics, so it can be used even after the topic changes. Other, more specific and advanced textbooks can also be useful to experienced participants. A useful tactic for studying is looking up topics on Google to get familiar with some subjects before going more specific. Wikipedia is also useful for this purpose.

Making Your Note Sheet

For information about making a note sheet, please see here.

Participants can make their note sheets using OneNote (which can fit a lot of information on one page) or similar programs. They should have some diagrams on the Coriolis Effect, the layers of the atmosphere, the types of clouds, classification systems, and other things they find useful.

Test Format

A Meteorology test usually is in the form of a written test or a PowerPoint with slides on it. Occasionally, a test may come in the form of stations that each team rotates between. In the written test, it is generally a good idea to split it if possible, so each person has less work to do, and time can be spent reviewing later on. Also, if time is a tiebreaker, this can be used to the competitors' advantage. As long as students are able to answer all of the questions in an educated fashion, their prospects are pretty bright.

Supplementary Pages

Everyday Weather: Everyday Weather Notes, EpicFailOlympian's Everyday Weather Notes

Severe Storms: Thunderstorms, Hurricanes, Winter Storms, Mid-Latitude Cyclones, Atmospheric Rivers

Climate: Climate Notes, EpicFailOlympian's Climate Notes

External Links

University of Illinois Meteorology Guide

NOAA Weather Education

JetStream Online School for Meteorology

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Meteorology is a current weather and climate-based event designed to test students' basic understanding of the meteorological principles and ability to interpret and analyze meteorological data. It has a main focus topic each year, which rotates between Climate, Everyday Weather, and Severe Storms. Basic knowledge of fronts and air systems, among other common Meteorology topics, is suggested for every year, although the topic rotates every year between three topics.

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Climate Kids is produced by the Earth Science Communications Team at

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Sci Oly Rules 2023 - Meteorology event (p.1 of 2)

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Sci Oly Rules 2023 - Meteorology event (p.1 of 2)

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Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that's simple, beautiful and fun.

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Meteorology Terms - practice quiz 1

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Everyday weather and Climate Review (124 Questions)

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Join an activity with your class and find or create your own quizzes and flashcards.

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Severe storms - quiz warmup

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Join an activity with your class and find or create your own quizzes and flashcards.

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Make a Cloud in a Jar! Weather Education Week Experiment | NBC10 Philadelphia

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Intro to Clouds and cloud experiment (8 min)

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Make a Cloud in a Jar! Weather Education Week Experiment | NBC10 Philadelphia

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Meteorology/Everyday Weather - Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki

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Meteorology/Everyday Weather - Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki

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Air tends to move from areas of high to low pressure. Air is denser in high-pressure cells (anticyclones), which tend to be hot and dry: this is because air tends to heat up when compressed (adiabatic warming), evaporating clouds and leading to drier weather. The evaporation of clouds also decreases surface albedo (reflectivity).

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Understanding the Dopplar Radar to forecast weather

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Understanding the Dopplar Radar to forecast weather

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NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar) obtains weather information (precipitation and wind) based upon returned energy. The radar emits a burst of energy (green in the animated image). If the energy strikes an object (rain drop, snowflake, hail, bug, bird, etc), the energy is scattered in all directions (blue). Note: it's a small fraction of the emitted energy that is scattered directly back toward the radar. Learn about the Radar Beam here NEXRAD spends the vast amount of time "listening" for returning signals it sent. When the time of all the pulses each hour are totaled (the time the radar is actually transmitting), the radar is "on" for about 7 seconds each hour. The remaining 59 minutes and 53 seconds are spent listening for any returned signals. Learn about the different scanning modes of the Radar here The ability to detect the "shift in the phase" of the pulse of energy makes NEXRAD a Doppler radar. The phase of the returning signal typically changes based upon the motion of the raindrops (or bugs, dust, etc.). This Doppler effect was named after the Austrian physicist, Christian Doppler, who discovered it. You have most likely experienced the "Doppler effect" around trains. As a train passes your location, you may have noticed the pitch in the train's whistle changing from high to low. As the train approaches, the sound waves that make up the whistle are compressed making the pitch higher than if the train was stationary. Likewise, as the train moves away from you, the sound waves are stretched, lowering the pitch of the whistle. The faster the train moves, the greater the change in the whistle's pitch as it passes your location. The same effect takes place in the atmosphere as a pulse of energy from NEXRAD strikes an object and is reflected back toward the radar. The radar's computers measure the phase change of the reflected pulse of energy which then convert that change to a velocity of the object, either toward or from the radar. Information on the movement of objects either toward or away from the radar can be used to estimate the speed of the wind. This ability to "see" the wind is what enables the National Weather Service to detect the formation of tornados which, in turn, allows us to issue tornado warnings with more advanced notice. This reflected signal is then received by the radar during its listening period. Computers analyze the strength of the returned pulse, time it took to travel to the object and back, and phase, or doppler shift of the pulse. This process of emitting a signal, listening for any returned signal, then emitting the next signal, takes place very fast, up to around 1300 times each second! Now, let's look at the radar data

In the image above, the grey line is the transmitted signal. You can see how
the returned energy changes its wavelength characteristics when it hits
a target moving away or toward the radar (red and green line, respectively)

Reflectivity data shows us the strength of the energy that is returned to the radar after it bounces off precipitation targets. Other non-precipitation targets will return energy, but for now, we will only deal with the precipitation. In general, the stronger the returned energy, the heavier the precipitation. Learn more about Reflectivity here . Velocity data is derived from the phase, or doppler shift of the returned energy. The radar's computers will calculate the shift and determine whether the precipitation is moving toward or away from the radar, and how fast, then apply a corresponding color to those directions and speeds. Red is typically a target moving away from the radar, while green is applied to targets moving toward the radar. The intensity of these colors determines its estimated speed. Learn more about Velocity here .
There are two main types of data, Velocity and Reflectivity.
Sometimes the WSR-88D Doppler Radar sees non-precipitation targets If there is a "target" out there and it reflects radar energy back to the radar, the radar will display it as if it was precipitation. The radar does have some logic built in to help it discriminate between precipitation and non-precipitation targets. But, sometimes we see curious things on our radar display. Here are a few:
In the image above, you can see the velocity data that is associated with a strong storm depicted in the reflectivity data. This is a great example of what a tornado looks like in the velocity display. Click on the image for better detail. The radar is located to the southeast, or to the bottom right of the computer screen. Note the bright red, or strong outbound velocities right next to the bright green, or inbound velocities. This indicates a strongly rotating column of air. When coupled with a reflectivity pattern that exhibits a hook signature, as in this case, there is often a tornado occurring or about to occur.

Bird Roost Rings. These are most common in the fall around bodies of water that typically have temperatures warmer than the surrounding land at night. It is also the time birds are gathering for the seasonal migration. At night, birds rest/nest in and around the lakes. Just before sunrise, there is often a coordinated lift off and dispersion of the birds out into the surrounding fields for feeding during the day. Click on the image to the left for a quick animation of the bird rings.
Anomalous Propagation.

Anomalous Propagation

Terrain

AP & Terrain

Based on our understanding of Radar Beam Characteristics , we expect the radar beam to leave the radar and propagate through the atmosphere in a standard way. Sometimes though, the atmosphere will cause the beam to superrefract or duct through the atmosphere. When this happens, the beam will sometimes bend downward causing some of the radar energy to hit the ground and return energy back to the radar, generating Anomalous Propagation (AP). The three images above show an interesting case. In the first image on the left, the circled area shows isolated AP. The middle image is a terrain map of southern Wisconsin. The image on the right shows the AP overlaid on the terrain map. Note how the high terrain of the Baraboo hills is highlighted by the radar. We know this is AP since we confirmed through satellite and other observations that skies were clear.
Wind Farm Interference. Wind farms can impact Doppler radars in three ways if the turbine blades are moving and they are within the radar's line of sight. If close enough (within a few kilometers) they can partially block a significant percentage of the beam and attenuate data down range of the wind farm. They can also reflect energy back to the radar and appear as clutter (AP) on the radar image and contaminate the base reflectivity data. The reflectivity data is used by radar algorithms to estimate rainfall and to detect certain storm characteristics. Finally, they can impact the velocity data, which are also used by radar operators and by a variety of algorithms in the radar's data processors to detect certain storm characteristics, such as mesocyclones, relative storm motion, turbulence, etc. Learn more here .

Sun Interference. Twice a day, at sunrise and sunset, the radar experiences interference from the electromagnetic energy emitted by the sun. There is a point at sunrise and sunset where the radar dish points directly at the sun and is hit with this energy. This is then displayed as a spike of returned energy on our display. It is brief, typically only occurring during one volume scan. Notice in the image to the left that sunset is slightly south of due west. The date is March 11, 2009. In less than 2 weeks, we will be at the Spring Equinox. The sun will set due west of the radar.

Smoke Plumes. During dry periods, when there is controlled burning or uncontained wildfires going on, our radar will detect smoke plumes associated with the fires. Many of the big smoke plumes are from prescribed, or controlled burns. These are fires intentionally set by Federal/State/Local officials for land management purposes. Other fires may be on private lands. The two plumes in this example (click on image for an animation) were prescribed burns by the Wisconsin DNR.

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NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar) obtains weather information (precipitation and wind) based upon returned energy. The radar emits a burst of energy (green in the animated image). If the energy strikes an object (rain drop, snowflake, hail, bug, bird, etc), the energy is scattered in all directions (blue).

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Science & information for a climate-smart nation

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Learning resources and educational links

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Division: B - Middle School

NC Essential Standards Alignment: 7.E.1

Event Rules: See National Rules

Event Score Sheet: None

National Event Page: Here

Required Materials: Writing instrument

Clarifications: None

Description:

This event is usually done as stations that teams rotate through, or it can be done as a sit-down test event, or a combination of the two types. Teams may be viewing any combination of models, pictures, diagrams/charts, or recorded/written descriptions. They will then be asked to answer questions (multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, etc) related to the materials. The topic for the 2023 tournament year is Everyday Weather.

Materials:

Each team may bring two stand-alone non-programmable, non-graphing calculators and two 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper that may contain information on both sides in any form and from any source.

Scoring:

High score wins. Points are awarded for the quality and accuracy of responses.

Common Mistakes:

None

Questions Answered
Will students be expected to read graphs?
Yes! Graphs should be in every Sci Oly event.

For example: we could include a graph with days on the x-axis, and air temperature on the y-axis. The graph would show a sharp decrease in air temperature on one of the days (cold front). Then we might ask:

On what day did the air temperature change the most?

Did the air temperature increase or decrease?

What type of front went through the area on Day X, when the air temperature changed the most, a warm front or a cold front?

What type of weather most likely happened on Day X, when the air temperature changed the most? (choices: cloudy, with some rain, OR sunny and clear skies, with no rain)

Where can I find charts that show recent weather conditions with time, like how pressure is changing with time, at a weather station near my school?
For the past few days of weather, one interactive web site that might help is https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?&zoom=5&scroll_zoom=false&center=40,-97&boundaries=false,false,false,false,false,false,false,false,false&tab=observation&hazard=true&hazard_type=all&hazard_opacity=70&obs=true&obs_type=weather&elements=temp,wind,gust&temp_filter=-80,130&gust_filter=0,150&rh_filter=0,100&elev_filter=-300,14000&precip_filter=0.01,18&obs_popup=true&obs_density=60&obs_provider=ALL . To see a site's data, click on a site on the map. Zoom in to see more sites pop up. Doesn't look like pressure is included on the default graphs on the web page. However, the pressure data are there in a table. A teacher could copy the pressure data even into MS Excel from the web page and make a graph for students to read.

The American Meteorological Society has a web page with meteograms (but not a lot of cities): https://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/dstreme/metgram.html .

I found a few other sites with meteograms but I haven't dug into them too much. The following web sites may be helpful: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/forecast-model-links ,

"Mesonets" are surface-based weather observation networks. They have lots and lots of stations and are considered "high resolution". The Oklahoma Mesonet is one of the oldest ones - they're a gold standard. They have meteograms - http://www.mesonet.org/index.php/weather/meteogram/ . So does a Mesonet program from New York State - e.g., http://www.nysmesonet.org/weather/meteogram#network=nysm&stid=olea
What are all the symbols on the surface weather map that look like https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/namccsfcwbg.gif or other ones up at What is a haboob? https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfc2.shtml?
- https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/wxmaps

- https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/wxmaps_max

- https://www.noaa.gov/stories/haboobs-phenomena-with-unusual-name-is-no-joke
Meteorology 2019 Coaches Clinic Presentation (2020 Rules)
Meteorology 2018 Coaches Clinic Presentation (2019 rules)
- https://www.weather.gov/safety/wind-dust-storm

- http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/images/news/Aish_Article.pdf (more technical, but some good graphics in the 2nd half of document)

- https://www.weather.gov/psr/DustWorkshops

Event Resources:

NOAA's Education twitter feed - https://twitter.com/noaaeducation

American Meteorological Society Education program twitter feed - https://twitter.com/AMSeducation

Archived storm reports from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/event.php Input a date and click "Get Data".

Archived weather maps that were the day's forecast, from NOAA's Weather Prediction Center: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/noaa/noaa_archive.php (Select a date, click "Submit")

Archived watches from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/. Under "archived Convective Watches", enter a date and click "Retrieve Watches"

Archived products from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in general: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/archive/ . Enter a date, click "Retrieve X".

Severe Weather & Storms:
Weather Wiz Kids - Tornados, Hurricanes, Rain and Floods, Safety, and many activities.
Hurricane Sandy - a summary
Arizona Haboob of 2012
NOAA Weather Safety
Severe Storms Study Guide
NASA - Meteorology Educator's Guide
Tropical Tidbits - great blog explaining current weather phenomena
American Meteorological Society - lots of good info and links

Climate:
Weather World
NOAA - Climate
NOAA - Ten Climate Science Activities
Earth Climate Course
Earth Climate System - good notes
NOAA - Climate Education
http://climatekids.nasa.gov/
NOAA - Climate
NASA Precipitation Education page, lots of good activities, scroll towards the bottom for a water cycle dice game

Media:

None

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Division: B - Middle School NC Essential Standards Alignment: 7.E.1 Event Rules: See National Rules Event Score Sheet: None National Event Page: Here Required Materials: Writing instrument Clarifications: None This event is usually done as stations that teams rotate through, or it can be done as a sit-down test event, or a combination of the two types.

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The current state of the atmosphere and is measureable in terms of temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, cloudiness and precipitation., A pattern of weather over a long period of time, such as over years, decades, or longer., The measure of the force exerted by the mass of the atmosphere on the surface