Objective

You will learn the characteristics of storms, in

order to identify the various

types of storms.

Warm-up

What comes to mind when

you hear the term severe

weather?

Most Recognizable

What is a Severe Storm?

Most violent weather is associated with LOW pressure systems because air of

different properties mixed there

Thunderstorms Hurricanes

Winter StormsTornadoes

Thunder & Lightning

Superheated air expands and creates shock wave

Can be heard up to 30 miles away

Flash-Sound Interval: 5 sec/mi (3 sec/km)

Not one second = one mile“Heat Lightning” is ordinary

lightning illuminating the clouds

Warm, humid, air rising in unstable environment

Tornadoes!Violent, whirling wind that moves in a narrow

path over land

Fun Facts: 1. The most powerful Tornadoes occur in the United States.2. A typical tornado only lasts for a few minutes.3. Every tornado has its own color, sound and shape.4. You need to step on the pedal of a car pass 70 miles per hour

to outrun the fastest tornadoes.5. The chances that a tornado is a F5, the highest classification

for a tornado on the F-scale, is less than 0.1% (this just occurred!)

6. Tornadoes have been reported in every state in the US and also in every season.

HurricanesHurricane: Atlantic

and East PacificTyphoon: West PacificCyclone: Indian Ocean

Intense Low-Pressure Systems

Need 60 m (200 feet) of ocean water at 26.5 C or warmer to formWinds of at least 119

km/hour

BlizzardA winter storm with strong winds, cold

temperatures, and low visibility, that lasts more

than three hours

• A National Weather Service WATCH means conditions are favorable for severe weather to develop

• A WARNING means that severe weather conditions already exist

• Where are most of the glitter and beads?• Where is the movement of the glitter and

beads the fastest? Where is it the slowest?• How is the vortex model like a real tornado?

How is it like a hurricane?

Vortex Demo

Reflect

• What happened when you first held the model so that the water was in the top of the bottle? Why do you think this happened? Draw a picture of your results

• How did you get the water to flow quickly into the bottom bottle?

• How did the motion of the glitter and beads change as they moved closer to the center of the spiral?

• Think about your model as a tornado. What might the glitter and beads represent? What does their movement tell you about the movement of air within a rotating storm?

• Think about your model as a hurricane. What do you think causes clouds of a hurricane to spiral?

Test Day

• Take out your Blue Packet, Dictionary, and other Meteorology notes

Word Bank 44-55

• Air Pressure• Front• Temperature• Wind• Humidity• Clouds

• Dew point• Cirro• Stratus• Precipitation • Tornadoes• Full of Water

Closure

• Look at the 3 pictures: Identify the storms. What clues helped you classify each storm?, List the specific characteristics that led to the identification.