Categories
Secondary Weather

Tropical Continental Air Mass and Saharan Dust

This morning, skies were orange/ beige across much of England as a Tropical continental (Tc) air mass brought Saharan dust. 

Saharan Dust on Windscreen

Image credit: Geoff Jenkins

Read more about why the air was carrying so much dust, and see some stunning photos from Spain and France here. The further the air travelled, the more dust was deposited and the less dust remained in the air – so the most vivid skies were in the south. 

Read our guide to air masses for background information or show our YouTube explainer

weather chart 16th March 2022

How can you tell that there is Tc air from this weather chart (midnight on 16th March 2022)? 

The air approximately follows the isobars, shown as thin lines on this chart. To work out which way, you need to look at the pressure systems and remember that air goes clockwise around anticyclones (H) and anticlockwise around cyclones (L). 

Considering either the 962mbar Low or the 1033mbar High shows you that the air is coming from the south (a southerly wind) across England.

Following the isobar marked 1020 back, you can see that the air has come over Spain from Africa. This is a Tropical continental air mass.

Behind the occluded front, for much of Ireland, the wind coming from the west. The 1020mbar Low is a bit misleading, but you can see that the air coming up from the south diverts to curve round it in an anticlockwise flow. 

Tc weather chart
Categories
Research Science Secondary

Resources for Mars Day

Mars not dusty

14th March 2022 is Mars Day

Establishing the radiation or energy budget of the Earth has been crucial to understanding climate change, but what do the radiation budgets of Mars and other planets in our solar system look like? Read about it in this article from Physics Review or this one from Science in School

You can find the energy budget images for all the planets mentioned here

Categories
Books Secondary

Book Review: the Weather Detectives

Weather Detectives
 
The Weather Detectives
Author: Michael Erb
Year: 2021
Publisher: Tumblehome, Inc. 
Suggested age range: 9-12
Price: £11.99
Set in the Caribbean, this book sees two young people and their associates set out to investigate some mysterious stories surrounding a cruise ship and its captain. 
Interspersed through the story are excepts from a weather guide being written by one of the characters. In many ways these are the best bits of the book – engaging and well written. It’s just a shame that they don’t really link in to the story.  Given the title, I was expecting the weather, or these asides, to provide clues which the protagonists could use to solve the mystery. 
It was tricky to suggest an age range for this book. The plot line is not very sophisticated, and it’s a short read, but the vocabulary is quite advanced in places. Fans of other mysteries aimed at this age range, such as those written by Lauren St. John, Lauren Child or Robin Stevens, would be disappointed.  
Written for an American audience, the only issue for a reader from another country would be not knowing what the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) is – one of the ‘clues’ is related to this.  
The author has written other books and supplied some suggested related activities at https://www.weatherdetectives.org
Categories
Climate Change Secondary

New Resource for International Women’s Day 2022

Sustainable development goals 5 and 13

We have created a new resource in time for International Women’s Day 2022, exploring the links between two of the Sustainable Development Goals – gender equality, and climate action.

Taking information from this weeks’ InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability as well as some of the relevant highlights fromCOP26, teachers can adapt the resource to suit their class. 

 

Categories
Extreme weather Geography Secondary Weather

Storm Eunice and Generic Case Study Template

Storm Eunice cloud and wind

We have created a new worksheet which allows students to collect information and create a case study of a named UK storm. As part of the worksheet, students collect and annotate weather chart and other information about the storm including weather warnings. 

Storm Eunice is given as a worked example.