Today, we answer this question with help from The Weather Channel. When warm air rises from the ground, it carries water vapor with it. When the water vapor meets the cold air found high in the sky, the gas condenses to liquid and forms cumulus clouds. While these fluffy-white clouds look like soft pillows of cotton, they are actually composed of small water droplets. When the sun shines, its electromagnetic spectrum emits a wide range of energy, including the visible spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet light.
The combination of these colors creates white light. Looking for more Never Stop Asking "Why? Catch up on all of the past "Whys" on the blog! Mask Policy Update: Masks are required indoors for all visitors ages 2 and older. Currently logged out. Current Members Educators. Today's Hours : 10 am—5 pm. Indoor: 10 am—5 pm Outdoor: Closed for the season. Access Pass. All Exhibits. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.
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The movement of water throughout Earth can be understood as a cycle where H20 moves from one state of matter to another. Use these standards-aligned resources to teach middle schoolers more about condensation, precipitation, and weather patterns that are affected by, and a part of, the water cycle. Weather is the state of the atmosphere, including temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover. It differs from climate, which is all weather conditions for a particular location averaged over about 30 years.
Weather is influenced by latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography. It impacts the way people dress each day and the types of structures built. Explore weather and its impacts with this curated collection of classroom resources.
Most people think of a blizzard as a bad snowstorm, but a winter storm must meet certain criteria to be classified as a blizzard. According to the National Weather Service, a blizzard is a weather event that includes low temperatures, wind speeds greater than 56 kilometers 35 miles per hour, and a large amount of falling or blowing snow that lowers visibility to 0.
These whiteout conditions can cause car accidents and people on foot to become lost. Additionally, the colder temperatures that often follow a blizzard can put people at risk of frostbite or hypothermia. Explore more about blizzards with this collection of resources. Cloud cover is an important component of understanding and predicting the weather. Not only does cloud cover impact sky conditions and inform precipitation predictions, it also helps regulate the temperature that occurs in a region.
Students will investigate the diversity of resources present within the cloud forest and how humans could benefit from this rich ecosystem. Hail is a type of precipitation, or water in the atmosphere. Hail is formed when drops of water freeze together in the cold upper regions of thunderstorm clouds.
Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. We've looked at clouds from both sides now. Photograph by Michele Sutton, My Shot.
Also called a thunderhead. Internet cloud. Milky Way. Also called cumulonimbus. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
According to Associate Professor Lane, clouds vary enormously in size and water content, depending on their type. A cumulus cloud might only have a diameter and depth of 1 kilometre — approximately 1 billion cubic metres in volume. The smaller clouds have a mass equal to about 6 million cricket balls. Can you see why? They are thin because they are made of ice crystals instead of water droplets.
A blue sky and a few cirrus clouds high in the sky usually means it is going to be a pleasant day. Cirrocumulus These clouds are rippled or grainy looking. They might resemble the striped patterns of fish scales! Cirrostratus These clouds appear as thin sheets that stretch across the sky.
At times, they do not appear to be separate clouds at all but give the sky a whitish appearance. These clouds can indicate the approach of rain. These clouds form bases from about 6, to 20, feet. They usually are made of water droplets, but can sometimes also contain ice crystals. Altostratus These clouds are most often seen as bluish-gray sheets that cover all or most of the sky. At times, they are so thick that they hide the Sun, which then appears as nothing more than a light area in the sky.
Altostratus clouds often appear a few hours ahead of a warm front that brings rain! Altocumulus These clouds most often occur in distinct layers of puffy, round cloudlets. As with cirrocumulus clouds, their patterning is sometimes called a mackerel sky. Altocumulus clouds in the morning may foretell afternoon thunderstorms. Cumulus clouds are the while puffy clouds. They look like giant cotton balls or cauliflower heads.
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