DESIGN YOUR OWN EMBLEM
Adventure Corps Rangers
LEARNING TO ABOUT THE WEATHER
1. What are some of the instruments that are used to monitor weather? Be able to
name and explain the use of at least three modern instruments.
2. Identify the different types of low clouds that are up to 6500 feet.
3. Identify the different types of middle clouds that are from 6500 -20,000 feet.
4. Identify the different types of high clouds that are from 20,000-40,000 feet.
5. Make a weather vane and record what direction the weather is coming from on at
least three different days.
6. Explain how a rainbow is formed.
7. Invite a local meteorologist to come to your group and talk about weather and his or
her job in that field and/or other weather related jobs that are available. What
classes would you need to take to prepare for this type of work?
8. Create a family emergency weather plan and present it to your family and your troop.
9. Record the weather for one week by recording the temperature in the morning and in
the evening. Record any rainfall, snow or precipitation at your house for that week.
Also explain how you measured the accumulation.
10. Explain the following weather terminology:
a. Weather
b. Humidity
c. Precipitation
d. Temperature
e. Wind
f. Monsoon
g. Dew Point
h. Relative Humidity
11. What causes thunder and lightening?
12. What are the differences between a watch and warning?
13. What causes snow and hail to form?
DESIGN YOUR OWN EMBLEM
Adventure Corps Rangers
Leaders’ Resources
LEARNING TO ABOUT THE WEATHER
1. Weather balloons with Global Positioning Systems on them, satellites, radar stations,
Doppler radar and computers.
2. The low clouds are:
a. Fog – clouds that come into contact with the ground.
b. Stratus – low sheets of clouds that form about 1 mile above the earth. These
occur on dark, gray days and can cause drizzle.
c. Nimbostratus – a thick, dark layer of clouds that bring rain.
d. Cumulus – big white fluffy clouds that are present on sunny days.
e. Stratocumulus – cumulus clouds that look layered.
f. Cumulonimbus – look like towering mountains and bring thunderstorms or
possibly tornadoes.
3. The middle clouds are:
a. Altocumulus – shaped like long rows.
b. Altostratus - thin layered clouds that look like a veil in front of the sun.
4. The high clouds are:
a. Cirrus – long wispy clouds.
b. Cirrocumulus – long rows that look like fish scales or ripples in the water.
Sometimes called a “mackerel sky.”
c. Cirrostratus – thin layers that look like a halo around the sun or moon
5. Look for patterns for making a weather vane on the internet or at local library.
6. A rainbow is an arc of light that is cause by the refraction and reflection of sunlight by
drops of water. Did you know that you can only see a rainbow when the sun shines
on drops of water behind the viewer? The rainbow begins with the color red on the
outer band followed by orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
7. Call your local TV station and ask their meteorologist come and talk to your troop
about his/her job and what they do to forecast the weather. You could also ask for a
tour of the location that they use to get their information. Also ask about other jobs
that are weather related what classes they would need at school for this job.
8. Go to the American Red Cross website and you will find emergency plans that you
can print off to send home to work on as a family. Make sure all members of your
family are involved in the planning.
9. Pick up some cheap rain gauges to send home with each family to record rainfall or if
you have snow, melt the snow and measure in a rain gauge to see how much you
have. On an average, 10 inches of snow measures out to 1 inch of water. Make a
chart for the boys to record the temperature during the times that you choose. You
may need to get cheap thermometers to send home. It will be interesting to see how
the temperatures are a little different from one side of the city to the other side.
Explain what causes mercury to rise and fall so that you are able to “read” the
temperature.
10. Explain the following weather terminology – Look these up in the dictionary or in a
book on weather. You can add more words if you would like
11. Usually, what happens as an instantaneous flash that we can see is a progression of
events. First, an invisible discharge of electrons races down from the cloud. This
movement of negative charged electricity causes a discharge of positive charged
electricity from the ground. The second bolt races up to meet the descending charge
and when they connect we see the lighteninig. This causes a huge vibration along
the discharges and we hear the sound effect that we know as thunder. This is
where the term opposites attract comes from. If you see lightening and don’t see
thunder you are too far away to hear it. Thunder storms usually cover about a 10
mile radius to them. When the lightning and thunder occur very close to one another
a strike is going to happen. To estimate the number of miles you are from a
thunderstorm, you count the number of seconds between the flash of lightening and
thunder and then divide by 5. So if you count 10 seconds, you are about 2 miles
from the storm.
12. A watch means that a storm is possible so start taking safety precautions. A warning
means that the storm is nearby and to take immediate cover.
13. Snow is precipitation in the form of small white crystals. Snow is formed from the
water vapor in the air that has a temperature of less than 32 degrees F. Hail is
caused by rising air that often reaches a temperature below freezing, which causes
the ice. It will be suspended in the air by strong updrafts but will fall back down. This
process can occur over and over which increases the size of the hail.
Additional resources and materials you can get to help with this activity are available
from your local library, Nature Watch Catalog, or Acorn Naturalist Catalog. There are
many others to choose from, as well.
Submitted By:
Captain Kim Ray,
Corps Officer, Galesburg IL
Juanita Belcher
Divisional Character Building Ministries Director
Heartland Division
USA Central Territory
DEVOTIONAL
Weather is all over in the Bible. What are some of the ways we see weather expressed?
Here are just a few: floods and rainbows in Noah’s time, and hail as one of the plagues.
Jonah, Paul and the disciples were in the midst of storms on the sea (at different times
of course). Elijah meets with God on a mountaintop and experiences a big wind, an
earthquake and fire, yet hears God in a still small voice. A strong wind separated the
waters so the Israelites could cross. There’s a mighty wind at Pentecost. I’m sure you
can think of others.
Mark 4: 35-41 is a great example of the effects of weather. The disciples were out on
the boat with Jesus. The NIV version relates that a terrible squall came up. A squall is a
sudden sharp increase in wind speed. The waves were getting higher and higher, the
disciples were becoming more and more afraid, and what was Jesus doing? He was
sleeping. The disciples may have done well to follow his example, but instead they
woke Him up. They wanted to know why He wasn’t worried. They wanted his “take” on
the situation.
So, He woke up and gave a directive to the wind and the waves. He told them to, “Be
Still!” I wonder if the directive might have been for the men in the boat also. But the
waves obeyed. The wind died down and the water became completely still. Wow! God
is awesome. The disciples got a first hand taste of this.
In Acts 27, we see a different storm. Paul is on a ship and a storm comes up. This time,
God does not still the storm. In fact, the ship struck a sandbar and was destroyed, but
God saved everyone on the ship. He even took care of them while they were safely
ashore in Malta, as the islanders were unusually kind to them.
What do these stories show us? God is in control of storms (and the weather).
Sometimes He stops the storms and sometimes He chooses to let them rage on and
calms the person instead. Whatever the “weather” in our lives, we can trust that God is
in control and will take care of each one of us.
Submitted By:
Captain Kim Ray
Corps Officer, Galesburg IL
Heartland Division
USA Central Territory