WEATHER STATION MODELS

WEBQUEST

INTRODUCTION:

You've just moved to a new city and you want to get involved in the community. After watching the weather reports in your region for a few weeks, you notice that your town is never mentioned! You call your nearest news station and volunteer to be a "Weather Watcher" for your town. The news station sends you the following note:

Dear Weather Watcher,

Thank you for volunteering your time and helping our station record regional weather data. In order to make it easier on us at the station, please submit your data in the form of a weather station model.

Thanks again,

The Meteorology Guru

TASK:

You will choose a location in the United States that you will report from. There is a lot of data that must be reported to the weather station. You will need to record temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, dewpoint temperature, and present weather conditions. You will collect weather data for (5) days in the form of an Excel table and then create (5) weather station models.

PROCESS:

1. Choose a location in the United States to collect your data using the American Weather Service link.

- Give the latitude and longitude to the nearest second.

- State the elevation above sea level.

2. Enter your location into the American Weather Service live weather search and collect the following data:

- Date/Time

- Temperature

- Humidity

- Daily Rain

- Wind Speed/Direction

- Barometric Pressure

- Dewpoint Temperature

- Current weather conditions

3. Design a table using Excel that contains the above data (including units) for all 5 days.

4. Create a weather station model for each day using only the data that is represented on the Earth Science Reference Tables. ***Be sure to make appropriate unit conversions for your weather station models.

5. Make a Title Page that includes your name, location, latitude/longitude, and elevation above sea level. Staple your "Weather Watch" report in the following order: Title Page, Excel Table, Weather Station Models. Hand your report into Mr. Drake by the assigned due date.

RESOURCES:

ONLINE: Live Weather Data

Station Model Diagrams and Symbols

Practice Reading Weather Station Models

OFFLINE: Review Book: pg 122-123 (How to read a station model)

Text Book: pg 568 Topic 14- (Station Models)

Earth Science Reference Tables: pg 13

EVALUATION:

1. Title Page: Name/location/latitude/longitude/elevation (1 pt each)

2. Excel Table: (1 pt each) X 5 days

a. Date/Time

b. Temperature

c. Humidity

d. Daily Rain

e. Wind Speed/Direction

f. Barometric Pressure

g. Dewpoint Temperature

h. Current weather conditions

3. Weather Station Models (5 pts each) X 5 days

*** TOTAL for this WebQuest is 70 pts.

CONCLUSION:

As you can see, there are a lot of weather variables that need to be taken into consideration for weather forecasting. Try your hand at weather forecasting. Search some cities to our west and southwest and try to forecast our weather in the upcoming days.