Understanding Clouds on World Meteorological Day, 2017

This year's theme for World Meteorological day is *Understanding Clouds*.




Clouds are created made of small drops of water, clustered together.

For *beginners* there are the 3 basic types of clouds:


  
 
Cumulus - thick, puffy clouds that tend to be white on top and on the edges with a darker, flat bottom. They kinda look like cotton-balls or cauliflower (depending on your preference ;)  ).
  




Cirrus - wispy, transparent / white, icy clouds. They are sheer clouds actually composed of ice crystals!
  



 
Stratus - low hanging clouds in dark/gray layer. These clouds can produce drizzle, ice prisms, and snow.




Understanding these clouds helps to understand weather, and to forecast the weather you can expect!

Here's a more advanced cloud chart from NOAA (and a link to a NOAA .pdf of clouds): 

click to view this chart larger!

...for more information about World Meteorological Day

Water Cycle #3 (complete!) > National Water Week (April 10- 16)

Basics of

ACTIVE PARTS Evaporation Transpiration / Evapotranspiration RunOff Condensation Sublimation Seepage Precipitation (rain, snow, fog, etc.) Infiltration Plant UpTake Recharge Flow

PHYSICAL PARTS Sun (solar energy) Clouds Lake River Cloud Plants/ Trees Spring Ground Water Atmosphere Water Table

It's been a busy week, so, unfortunately that's all for National Water Week... but next week is Earth Day! (and the earth *is* ~70% water, so......   ; )   ).

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Water Cycle #2 (hints!) > National Water Week! (April 10- 16)

 As promised, here are a few hints to give you a starting place for filling in the water cycle coloring page.

 Try to look up some of the terms and put them in the diagram! On the last day of National Water Week, Saturday, I will add the definitions in case you can't find them.

Some of the terms used in describing the water cycle:

ACTIVE PARTS Evaporation Transpiration Evapotranspiration RunOff Condensation Sublimation Seepage Precipitation Infiltration Plant UpTake Recharge Flow

PHYSICAL PARTS Sun Clouds Lake River Cloud Plants/ Trees Spring GroundWater Atmosphere

The blank coloring page:

And a colored page:

And last, for today, fill in the blanks!

I haven't given you all of the blanks, first try to fill in some on your own!

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