Science Fact Finder

Atmospheric Basics

1. What is barometric pressure and what does it mean? [answer]
2. What are the highest and lowest recordea temperatures on Earth? [answer]
3. What is the Coriolis effect? [answer]
4. Why are the horse latitudes called by that name? [answer]
5. What are jet streams and when were they discovered? [answer]
6. What is the dew point and how does dew form? [answer]
7. When does frost form? [answer]
8. What is the heat index? [answer]
9. How much humidity should be maintained in the house during winter? [answer]
10. What is meant by the windchill factor? [answer]
11. When and by whom were clouds first classified? [answer]
12. What are the four major cloud categories, based on height in the sky? [answer]
13. What is the Beaufort Scale? [answer]
14. Is Chicago the windiest city? [answer]
15. What is a chinook? [answer]

Precipitation And Thunderstorms

1. How does snow form? [answer]
2. How much water is there in an inch of snow? [answer]
3. Is it ever too cold to snow? [answer]
4. Can two snowflakes be alike? [answer]
5. What is the difference between freezing rain and sleet? [answer]
6. When and where do thunderstorms occur in the United States? [answer]
7. Where is the rainiest place on Earth? [answer]
8. How hot is lightning? [answer]
9. How is the distance between lightning and an observer calculated? [answer]
10. What is ball lightning? [answer]
11. What color is lightning? [answer]
12. How large can hailstones become? [answer]
13. How many volts are in lightning? [answer]

Tornadoes And Hurricanes

1. Which month is the most dangerous for tornadoes in the United States? [answer]
2. What is the Fujita and Pearson Tornado Scale? [answer]
3. How are hurricanes classified? [answer]
4. Which U.S. hurricanes have caused the most deaths? [answer]
5. What were the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in United States history? [answer]
6. How do hurricanes get their names? [answer]

Optical Effects

1. What is the order of colors in a rainbow? [answer]
2. What is a halo? [answer]
3. What are sundogs and moon dogs? [answer]
4. When does the green flash phenomenon occur? [answer]
5. What is Saint Elmo's fire? [answer]
6. How does an airplane produce a glory? [answer]

Forecasting And Climate

1. When did the first television and radio weather forecasts take place? [answer]
2. How accurate are forecasts? [answer]
3. What is nowcasting? [answer]
4. What is a radiosonde? [answer]
5. Can groundhogs accurately predict the weather? [answer]
6. Is the world actually getting warmer? [answer]