Weather Patterns and Severe Storms Webquest

Use the links to answer the questions that follow with your webquest partner. You will write all of the answers on one sheet of paper with both of your names on the paper. Each of you will be responsible for half of the questions written in your own handwriting, therefore you could chose to answer every other question or to answer the first half and then the second half.

What is an air mass? http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_an_air_mass.htm 1. What is an air mass? 2. What is the difference between a tropical and polar air mass? What Causes High Pressure? http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_high_pressure.htm 3. What causes an air mass to have high pressure? What Causes Low Pressure? http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_causes_low_pressure.htm 4. What causes an air mass to have low pressure? Warm Fronts http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/af/frnts/wfrnt/def.rxml 5. When a warm front moves through an area, what will happen to the temperature? 6. Look at the first diagram. There are two temperatures written in blue (28 and 31). These numbers will change once the warm front moves through. What do you think the temperatures will change to? Why? Cold Fronts http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/af/frnts/cfrnt/def.rxml 7. When a cold from moves through an area, what will happen to the temperature? 8. Look at the first diagram. There are two temperatures written in red (55 and 62). These numbers will change once the cold front moves through. What do you think the temperatures will change to? Why? Occluded Fronts http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/occl_front.html 9. What is an occluded front? 10. What will happen to the temperature once an occluded front moves through? Fujita Scale http://www.tornadoproject.com/fscale/fscale.htm 11. What kind of storms are classified on the Fujita Scale? 12. Are most tornadoes weak, strong, or violent? 13. Are most tornado-related deaths from weak, strong, or violent tornadoes? Tornado Alleyhttp://www.tornadochaser.net/tornadoalley.jpg 14. What 19 states make up tornado alley? (abbreviations are fine) Tornadoes in the United States http://www.tornadochaser.net/images/frequency.gif 15. Which state gets the most tornadoes per square mile? US Tornado Climatology http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadoes.html

16. Where in the world can tornadoes happen? 17. Where in the world are tornadoes most likely to happen? Hurricane Watches and Warnings http://www.ready.gov/kids 18. What is the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning? What Can't We Stop Hurricanes? 19. Why can't we stop hurricanes? http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes

Intensity Scales 20. Which intensity scale is used for hurricanes? 21. If a hurricane has wind speeds of 103 mph, what category storm is it? Isotherm Map (use the map of the Southeastern US provided by your teacher) http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/Southeast/Temperature.html 22. What is an isotherm? (the answer is not on this website) 23. Label Myrtle Beach on the map. 24. Use colored pencils to draw in the isotherms on your map. It does not matter which colors you use. Just make sure that they match your key (you need to have a key). On the left side of the screen, click on "Fronts." 25. Draw any fronts that you see. 26. Draw any H's and L's that you see.