Science Storms Test

A vortex is a gas or liquid moving in a spiral around a central axis. A vortex forms when fast winds move over slow winds.

Air above a heated surface warms, expands, and rises. Air above a cold surface sink because of its increased density.

When warm air and cold air meet they push up against each other and form a front. Then the warm air rises because it is lighter and the cold air sinks.

Special features that hurricanes have is that they bring heavy rain. They are 300-500 miles long. And they last two plus weeks. They also have an eye in the middle.

Tornadoes last 20 plus minutes. They have a calm center. And they last 20 minutes.

Thunderstorms start with a cumulus cloud. They bring rain, thunder, and lightning. They last 30 minutes on average.

Tornadoes thunderstorms- form over land, needs clouds and moisture

Thunderstorms Hurricanes- bring strong rain

Hurricanes tornadoes- rotating, strong winds, rotate the same ways, calm center

All- causes by the sun, extreme weather, forms over land and water, high wind speeds

Hurricanes and tornadoes rotate counterclockwise in northern hemisphere, opposite in southern

The sun heats water causing evaporation, that starts our water cycle. The sun also heats the air which drives our weather.

A convection current is when warm air rises and cold air sinks. This is a pattern that repeats over and over. A convection current causes wind.

To set up the investigation to make a fair test I made sure that the solid and the water were an equal distance away from the light. I also made sure that I didn’t touch any of the items during the experiment.

Soil heated faster

Water held its heat longer

The soil heated up very fast. This is because the soil is dark in color. That allows it to absorb heat very quickly.

The water curve shows that the water heated very slowly. This is because the water has a light color. Lighter colors tend to reflect heat so the water heated up slowly.

Temperature after 5 min- 23.6 degrees celsius

The experiment relates to the beach. On the beach, the sand is just like the soil. During the day the sand is very hot and the water is very cold. But during the night, the sand is cold and the water is warm.

Tornado Alley- Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas

Tornadoes form in tornado alley because that is where warm air from the equator meets cold air from Canada and the Rocky Mountains. That makes it a perfect spot for Tornadoes to form.

A sea breeze is the flow of wind from sea to land. It forms when the sea is colder than the land which is during the day.

A land breeze is the flow of wind from the land to the sea. It happens at night when the land is colder than the sea.

Evaporation- Liquid to gas

Condensation, gas to liquid CLOUDS FORM

precipitation, precipitation falls from the clouds in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail

High Pressure- Chicago and Kansas City

Low pressure- Detroit and Toronto

In Detroit and Toronto the weather has lots of thunderstorms because of the low pressure.

Front- Seattle

In Seattle there is fair weather and temperatures are in the 60s-80s

Weather moves west to east

Metoerlogist can track and forecast the weather easier because they know where its coming from