Weather Test Review
Convection Currents:
1. Explain convection current. How does density of air and water effect convection currents?
When air and water are heated and begin a circling pattern because of
differences in densities
Cooler air/liquid is more dense, so it sinks
Warmer air/liquid is less dense, so it rises
2. How does the Sun’s thermal energy effect convection currents in our atmosphere and oceans?
Convection currents create wind and ocean currents
Wind and Ocean Currents:
3. Fill in the two diagrams below about Wind and Ocean Currents.
Ocean Currents
Wind
Cause of surface currents:
Winds push water on surface
How does wind form?
Winds blow from high to
low pressure
Cause of deep currents (2 things):
Convection currents and salinity
4. How does the sun play a role in creating ocean and wind currents?
Sun heats up air and water at equator which causes it to move towards the north
and south poles, where it cools and sinks back to the equator
Oceans and Weather:
5. How does a warm current affect the weather near a coastal town like Galveston?
Creates warm, humid, wet weather with lots of rain, fog, and humidity
6. How does a cold current affect the weather near a coastal town in like New York City?
Creates colder weather with rain, but very little humidity
7. Complete the diagram below about Hurricanes:
Hurricanes:
How is a hurricane created?
Warm winds from
Africa blow over
Atlantic Ocean and
begin to evaporate
ocean water
What feeds a hurricane and
keeps it alive?
What are two thigns that
kills a hurricane?
Low pressure and
warm ocean
waters
Cold ocean water
or moving over
land
Land vs. Sea Breeze?
8. Draw a picture of land and sea breeze in the following boxes. Be sure to include a sun if it during the day and a
moon if it is during the night.
Land Breeze: day or night?
Sea Breeze: day or night?
Occurs during the night when
wind blows from the land to the
ocean
Occurs during the day when wind
blows from the ocean to the land
9. What causes the winds to change during the day and night during a land and sea breeze?
During the day the land absorbs more heat creating a low pressure system over
land and high pressure over ocean, and during the night it looses its heat,
creating a high pressure system over land and low pressure over ocean. Winds
blow high to low so the direction of wind changes.
10. Low Pressure vs. High Pressure
Low Pressure
Warm air mass, Wet Weather,
Humid, Counterclockwise, Cloudy,
Scattered storms, rain
High Pressure
Colds air mass, Clear skies,
Clockwise, Fair weather
Fronts:
11. Fill out the diagram below about fronts:
Warm Front:
Warm air mass moves into cold air mass, temperature rise and brings wet
weather (scattered storms), humidity, and cloudy days
How does the
weather change
with these fronts?
Cold Front:
Cold air mass moves over a warm air mass, temperatures drop (gets colder)
and brings quick thunderstorms followed by many days of clear skies
Stationary Front:
Warm front and cold front run into each other and get stuck, brings many days
of rain/thunderstorms and not nice weather
Weather Map
12. Draw each symbol below that you would find on a weather map:
Warm Front
Cold Front
Stationary Front
High Pressure
Low Pressure
13. Answer the following questions using the weather map below (see back for state names):
14. Where on the map would you expect cloudy weather based on the type of air pressure?
West Texas or Utah (low pressure area)
15. Where on the map would you expect clear skies based on the type of air pressure?
Canada or Atlantic Ocean
16. What type of weather will Tennessee expect to have in the next couple of days?
Cold front is coming in, so temperatures will lower (get colder), there will be
quick thunderstorms followed by clear skies and fair weather
17. What type of weather will Wyoming expect to have in the next couple of days?
Warm front it coming in, temperature will lower and bring days of scattered
showers and other types of wet weather