Middle School Academics

1. Weather & Climate
Storms

2. Objectives
• List and describe the main types of storms
and explain how they form
• CC STATEMENT (CC 2.1.7) – Global
patterns of atmospheric movement
influence local weather.

3. STORMS
• A storm is a violent disturbance in the
atmosphere.
• They involve sudden changes in air
pressure.
• Changes in air pressure causes rapid air
movement.

4. Thunderstorms
Formation
•W/in large
cumulonimbus,
or
thunderheads
•Form when
warm air is
forced upward
at a cold front
Temperature
•Hot, humid
afternoons in the
spring and
summer
Precipitation
•Heavy rainfall
•Sometimes hail
Safety
•Avoid
touching
metal objects
•Install metal
lightening
rods
•Find a low
area away
from trees
•Stay away
from water

5. Thunderstorms
• During a thunderstorm, positive and negative
electrical charges build up in the clouds.
• The discharge of the electricity between clouds
is lightening.
• Lightening is as hot as 30,000°C, hotter than the
sun.
• The heated air expands and explodes producing
thunder.

6. Checkpoint
• What is El Nino?
• What is a storm?
• Weather pattern related
to the temperature of the
water in the tropical
Pacific Ocean.
• Any type of violent
disturbance in the
atmosphere.

7. Tornado
• Rapidly whirling, funneled-shaped cloud that
reaches down from a storm cloud to touch E’s
surface
• Most frightening & disruptive storm
• Usually brief, touching the ground approx. 15
minutes or less
• Wind speeds may reach 480 km/hr

8. Tornado
Formation
•Develop in
low, heavy
cumulonimbus
clouds
•When warm
dry air mass
and cool air
mass collide
Temperature
•Warm humid
air
•Spring and
early summer
when ground is
warm
Precipitation
•Heavy rain and
wind
Safety
•Listen for
watches &
warnings
•Basement
level, or to the
middle room
on ground
floor
•Stay away
from windows
•Lie in a ditch

9. Tornado
• Tornado Watch – tornadoes are possibly in
your area
• Tornado Warning – tornadoes have been
seen in the sky or on weather radar
• Occur most often in the US
• Approx. 800 tornadoes a year

10. Checkpoint
• Where do tornadoes
form?
• Why is there a tornado
valley?
• What states make up
tornado valley?
• Low heavy cumulonimbus
clouds
• Warm humid air mass
moves north from Gulf of
Mexico and meets a cold
dry mass that is moving
south from Canada
• SD, Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas, Missouri,
Oklahoma, TX, NM, and
Arkansas

11. Hurricanes
• Tropical storm that has winds of 119 km/hr
• Usually occur between June and November in
the eastern US
• Hurricanes that occur in western US are called
typhoons
• Bring much needed rainfall to S Asia & SE
Asia

12. Hurricanes
Formation
•Begins over
warm water as
a low pressure
area, tropical
disturbance
•Gets it
energy from
warm humid
air at the
ocean’s
surface
Temperature
•Warm
temperatures
Precipitation
•Strong winds
•Rain which
generally causes
flooding
Safety
•Evacuate
•Move into
the interior
room and stay
away from
windows

13. Hurricanes
• Occur between June and November
• Effect people that live on the coast of the
Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans
• Hurricanes bring needed rainfall to S Asia
and SE Asia
• Eye – center of a hurricane

14. Winter Storms
• Lake-effect Snow – In the fall and winter, land
cools faster than the lakes.
• When cool air mass moves from Canada across
Great Lakes it picks up water vapor and heat from
lakes.
• After the air mass
passes the lakes it begins
to cool and the water vapor
condenses and falls as snow

15. HOMEWORK
• Section Review p. 91 # 1-4
COMPLETE SENTENCES
• Be able to explain the CC statement that
relates to today’s lesson
• BRING WORKBOOKS TO CLASS
TOMORROW