Activity 5

In this activity we learned that winds affect the currents on the surface of water. If the winds are blowing to the north then the surface of the water will move to the north as well. We also learned that wind can bring in cold or warm air depending on the temperature of the water that it passes over. This means that an area can either be warmed up or cooled down by the wind. This activity relates to my topic because as the winds bring in cold air it can turn the moisture in the air into snow or sleet.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_current
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/wind1.htm

What is a snow storm?

Snow Storms
A snow storm or winter storm is a climatic occurrence when the dominant form of precipitation comes as snow or sleet at cold temperatures. Also if it is raining outside but the ground temperature is below freezing then the rain will become ice and this is called freezing rain. These are all forms of a snow storm or winter storm. If the snow storm is big enough and it has very powerful winds then it is called a blizzard. Snow storms occur when the cold polar air and the warm tropical air meet one another and snow storms occur more frequently when the difference in the temperatures are greater. These storms are usually low pressure and they can cover thousands of miles. Lake effect snow storms are formed when cold air is pushed over the warm water of a large lake. Then the cold air picks up some moisture and heat and when the cold air reaches land it is forced to drop its moisture in the form of snow.
There are many ways that snow storms impact the lives of humans. After it snows the snow plows have to come out and clear the roads, so people will be safer. The money to do this comes from the government and the more it snows the more money the government has to use to clear the roads. People also have to clear their walkways by shoveling and this can be hard work. In fact some people have died from heart attacks by overexerting themselves when they shovel heavy wet snow. 2 inches of snow is more than enough to make it hard for people to drive and this includes school buses because it is hard for the bus drivers to maneuver the buses on slick roads. Sometimes it is difficult to start the vehicle when it is very cold. People can get killed or injured in car accidents. 6 inches of snow can make some roads impossible to get through and some vehicles can get stuck in the snow. This means that people will not be able to get to work and schools, buses, airports, mail, shipments of food and other goods, and trains will have to be closed or delayed for the day. Stores and businesses lose money because their customers cannot get to the stores to buy things. The people that miss work will not get paid for that day, so that means that people loss money when there is a terrible snow storm. 12 inches of snow can cause some roofs to cave in, which means that people will have to spend money to either fix or buy a new house. The weight of the snow can cause power lines, phone lines, and trees to fall down. If the power lines fall down then people will lose power to their entire house and if the phone lines fall down then people will not be able to call anyone including the police or hospital if they need help. Trees can fall down in the middle of roads and block the path. This means that people cannot get to or out of certain areas and this could be a major problem if you need to get to the hospital. Freezing rain can destroy a whole area of crops and this will hurt the people growing the crops, businesses that want to buy these crops, and the consumers who might have bought the crops. If a large amount of crops or plants are destroyed it could cause the prices on produce to rise and people will lose money. Mountain snow storms can form cornices and avalanches, which can kill people if they are caught in one of them. Death can also occur from hypothermia and an infection from frostbite. Spring flooding occurs when there is a lot of snow on the ground and then quite suddenly it gets very warm. This causes the snow to melt and then there is too much water for the ground to absorb.
There are a few ways that we can affect snow storms. If we made a big lake in an area that did not have a large body of water then more snow would fall in that area. The cold air would meet the warm water and then when the cold air hit the land it would start to drop the snow in the surrounding area. People can also cause avalanches to happen by either knocking loose some snow near the top of a mountain or being loud enough for the resulting noise to cause an avalanche to happen. People make areas warmer because of their homes, machines, vehicles, and being outside themselves. This heat will cause the snow to melt faster and if the air is below freezing then the melted snow will become ice and ice is more dangerous than snow, especially on the roads.
A snow storm is when there is any precipitation that falls when the climate is close to or below freezing. This includes snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Snow storms form when cold air hits the warmer air. The amount of snow depends on the difference between the temperatures. The greater the difference the more snow there will be. Snow impacts our lives more than we can impact the snow storms.
All five links that I used to gather information for my report were about how snow storms were formed, what snow storm was, and how they impacted our lives.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to put the images on the blog but I can give you a hard copy so you can see what pictures I used.


Bibliography

Angel, Jim. “Cold Hard Facts about Winter Storms.” Illinois State Climatologist Office. 6 March 2008. Illinois State Water Survey. 11 April 2008.
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Heidorn, Keith C. “Lake Effect Snowfalls.” The Weather Doctor. 26 February 1998. 11 April 2008. .

Heidorn, Keith C. “What Causes Lake-Effect Snow Squalls.” The Weather Doctor. 26
February 1998. 11 April 2008. .

“Overrunning.” The Weather Channel. 2008. 11 April 2008.
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"Winter Storm.” Wikipedia. 7 April 2008. 11 April 2008.
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Works Cited (in order)

Heidorn, Keith C. “What Causes Lake-Effect Snow Squalls.” The Weather Doctor. 26
February 1998. 11 April 2008.
< http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/lkefsnw2.htm>.

“Winter Storm.” Wikipedia. 7 April 2008. 11 April 2008.
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“Winter Storm.” Wikipedia. 7 April 2008. 11 April 2008.
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“Winter Storm.” Wikipedia. 7 April 2008. 11 April 2008.
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“Avalanches.” Niles EMA. 2003. 11 April 2008. .

Deldot. 6 Sept. 2007. State of Delaware. 11 April 2008. .

“Snow Shoveling Safety.” CBS News. 7 March 2005. 11 April 2008. .

"Wild Winds in Suffolk.” BBC. 2007. 11 April 2008. .

Bozeman Daily Chronicle. 2008. 11 April 2008. .

Maze, Tom. “Winter Driving: risks, costs, and safety strategies.” Technology News. 2004. 11 April 2008. .

Activity 4

Today's activity was about how the sun affects the temperature of dirt, sand, and water. There were six bottles. Two had dirt, two had sand, and the last two had water. One of the dirt, sand, and water bottles had paint on the top to slow the penetration of the sun through the bottle. A lamp was put over the top of them for 20 minutes and then the temperatures were taken. The bottles without paint had higher temperatures than the bottles with paint. The sand had the highest temperature, then it was the water, and the dirt had the lowest temperature. This relates to my topic because the sand and snow act in the same way when the sun hits it. They reflect the light so that the sand or snow warms up but they warm up the surrounding area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/worldvegetation/strand/physicalpropertiesofstrand.html

Activity 3

The hotter the weather the lower the amount of rain and this vastly effects crops. There are two jetstreams that go through the United States and effect the weather. They come from Canada but they split up just before hitting the United States border. One runs along the Pacific coast and the other runs along the United States border. The first jetstream brings rain into the nearby areas and the rain gets pushed over the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The second jetstream brings subzero tempertures and this makes the northern states colder. The second jetstream is related to my topic because it causes the water in the clouds to turn into snow or ice.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream
http://www.intellicast.com/National/Wind/JetStream.aspx

Activity 2

For this activity we only had to read about 1.5 pages about dew and its affects on clouds. I learned that if the percentage of dew is above 65% then it attacts the clouds because the wind blows the clouds that way. The higher the amount of dew the more it rains in that area. There is more dew in areas that are close to a body of water, like a river, lake, or ocean.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew
http://alfalfa.ucdavis.edu/symposium/2004/proceedings/Glenn_Shewmaker_MEASURING%20MOISTURE%20IN%20HAY2.pdf

Activity 1

In class today, we had three bowls and each one contained a different item. One had dirt, another had water, and the last had snow. The point of this activity was to see how different conditions affected each of the items. After putting a thermometer-like instrument into the bowls we shone a lamp on each of the bowls to see how the temperature changed after 10 minutes. The snow's temperture did not change but the temperature of the water and dirt rose. The water's temperature rose much quicker than the dirt's temperature. Then we let the bowls cool off for 10 minutes. The water's temperature fell quickly, the dirt's temperature fell much slower, and the snow's temperature did not change. From this activity it shows that snow does not absorb heat but it does reflect light.

http://nsidc.org/snow/
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterproperties.html