Wind is caused by the flow of gasses in our atmosphere | Wind |
We use anemometers to measure wind speed | |
We can generate energy from wind by using wind turbines | |
We have been using wind for energy since sailing ships were invented | |
We use the wind for recreation with kites, wind surfing and paragliding | |
Not all rain drops reach the ground. Some evaporate while still falling | Rain |
Raindrops are not tear-shaped, as many believe | |
Mawsynram in India gets 11 metres of rainfall each year! | |
Britain's wettest day was in 2015 when Honister Pass had 34 cm of it! | |
The average speed of a falling raindrop is 20 mph | |
On hot days the Eiffel Tower grows up to 17 cm taller | Heat |
The highest temperature in the shade was 57.8°C in Libya in 1922 | |
In 1995, Chicago experienced a heat wave that caused over 700 deaths | |
The summer solstice is when the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky | |
The hottest UK temperature was 38.7°C in Cambridge in 2019 | |
Scotland sees sleet or snow an average of 38.1 days a year | Snow |
Every snowflake is a unique shape | |
The first snowflake photographed was in 1885 | |
The Inuit people have at least 53 words for snow | |
In the UK we are more likely to have a white Easter than a white Christmas | |
Fog is tiny droplets of water suspended in the air close to the ground | Fog |
There are different types of fog. Follow the link to see what they are | |
Newfoundland, Canada, has over 200 foggy days every year | |
Rainbows can appear in fog. These are called "Fogbows" | |
In mist you can see more than 1 km. In fog visibility drops below 1 km | |
Hail is frozen precipitation (rain or snow) that has a diameter of 5 mm or more | Hail |
Hailstones can fall at speeds of over 100 mph | |
The heaviest hailstone fell in Bangladesh in 1986. it weighed 1.02 kilograms | |
The largest fell in the USA in 2010. It had a 47 cm circumference | |
Hailstones have gone through roofs, broken windows and destroyed cars | |
A bolt of lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the Sun | Thunder |
In Tororo, Uganda, it thunders on more than 250 days a year | |
Lightning kills thousands of people a year, so stay inside during storms | |
The odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime are 1 in 15,300 | |
The fear of thunder and lightning is called astraphobia | |
The coldest UK temperature is -27.2°C in the Scottish Highlands | Cold |
The UK's worst winter was 1962/63 when there were 6 m high snowdrifts | |
Every winter, more than a septillion snowflakes fall. That's a 1 with 24 zeros! | |
In the Northern Hemisphere Earth is closest to the Sun during winter | |
Many times it has been cold enough for the River Thames to freeze solid | |
Hurricanes are tropical storms that produce heavy rainfall and strong winds | Hurricanes |
Hurricanes rotate around a centre called the “eye", where the weather is calm | |
Hurricane winds can reach a speed of 175 mph (280 km/h) | |
In the Southern Hemisphere hurricanes rotate clockwise | |
Hurricanes are called cyclones and typhoons, depending on where they are | |
Clouds are formed by water that has evaporated from Earth's surface | Clouds |
At any given time, around 67% of Earth's surface is covered by cloud | |
The average weight of a cloud is about 5 grams per cubic metre | |
Contrails are clouds formed from the water in aeroplanes' exhausts | |
There are 10 common types of cloud. Click the link to learn them | |