Age Range: 14 to 16

OCR 2016 Geography A GCSE

Post date 26 November 2020

Recommended Resources to Support the Teaching of Weather and Climate within this Specification

We are delighted to have worked together with the OCR to develop resources to support this specification – click here to access the resources with links embedded into the scheme of work here.

UK Cities

An introduction to microclimates.

An introduction to urban heat islands.

Microclimate fieldwork ideas.

Weather and Climate:a Teachers’ Guide Urban Climates

UK Climate - Air Masses, Continentality and the North Atlantic Drift

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide UK Climate

An introduction by the Met Office.

Air Masses – there are many more air mass resources on the key stage 4 page.

A case study of arctic maritime air.

A case study worksheet of orographic rain can be found on the key stage 4 page.

A Met Office YouTube video on Wind Direction and weather.

Climate Change

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide Changing Global Climate

Past climate change teaching resources.

Our Climate Change Negotiations for Schools resource.

Some introductory resources on climate and climate change.

Climate change updates for geography teachers.

Climate4Classrooms resources.

Climate Change Schools Project resources.

Global Circulation of the Atmosphere

Global Atmospheric Circulation YouTube video

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation

Some introductory ideas on climate zones.

Coriolis movie.

We also recommend:

The nullschool animation of current surface winds.

Tropical Storms

Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide: Tropical Cyclones

Complete KS3 scheme of work on tropical cyclones, which could be used for revision or background information.

Work scheme on extreme weather including tropical storms (aimed at A level but could be adapted).

El Nino

Further KS4 resources. Link to OCR website for the full specification.

Key Stage 4 Geography Resources

Post date 26 November 2020

Resources for 14-16 Year Old Students

Selected Resources for each GCSE Geography Specification

OCR A geography GCSE
OCR B geography GCSE

Geography

Air Masses

Air masses and fronts – introductory text

Air Masses – an introduction to the major air masses affecting the UK

Case studies of UK air masses (November 2010, November 2011 and the end of September 2010) with answers for teachers and a case study of arctic maritime air (Jan/ Feb 2015) can be found on our case studies page.

Air Masses – worksheet and the Met Office’s air mass video .

AWS data to study air masses and depressions (adapted from LGfL)

An introduction to weather systems

Anticyclones, depressions and fronts

Understanding weather charts – excercises

Weather systems plenary, revision or homework exercise – an investigation into why the forecast showed the temperature rising at night.

What is the weather? Work out what the weather is like at several UK locations based on some simplified weather maps.

Isotherm and Isobar drawing exercise based on a depression: student worksheet. A simpler version of the T/ isotherm map can be found here or the full version including solutions may be found on the A level page.

Using WOW data to investigate a depression passing across the UK with worksheets for students

Use WOW data to track a cold front across the UK and work out its speed.

Weather Maps – basic information on synoptic charts, with Isotherm map excercise and Synoptic chart excercise.

We’ve pulled together some resources about ex-hurricane Ophelia, bringing together information about tropical cyclones, depressions, anticyclones and air masses to explore the extremely unusual weather we experienced in October 2017 Ophelia.pptx.

Shipping forecast

Tropical Weather

Using GIS to study hurricane tracks and tropical storm risk (developed by Bob Lang, teacher and GA consultant)

Some useful links about Super typhoon Haiyan/ Yolanda

Monsoons

Other Weather

Microclimates

Urban Heat Island Fieldwork and a simple and effective lesson plan which uses WOW data to identify Urban Heat Islands. The supporting PowerPoint presentations can be found here.

Weather Project Ideas

Other recommended resources:

A wide range of animations from the Met Office suitable for geography and science topics.

Resources looking at change of state, latent heat, data handling and the Electromagnetic Spectrum from the NCAS/ DIAMET project (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

An excellent resource (first published by the GA) investigating weather conditions needed for the various Olympic sporting events using weather station or WOW data.

AS/ A level Resources

Key Stage 3 Resources

Severe Storms

Post date 26 November 2020

severe storm diagram — This three-dimensional model is taken from a paper entitled Airflow in convective storms by K.A.Browning and F.H.Ludlam published in the April 1962 issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (Volume 88, p

Including hail, downdraughts and cloudbursts

It was reported in The Times newspaper on 15 April 1986 that a hailstorm lashing Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, had killed nearly 50 people and injured more than 400. The storm had brought winds of about 60 mph and hailstones weighing up to 2 lb (nearly 1 kg). Houses had been flattened, communications disrupted and the windscreens of more than 700 cars shattered. In such conditions, an umbrella was no use whatsoever; even a riot shield may not have provided adequate protection! According to Dick File, in Weather Facts (Oxford University Press, 1991), this storm (which struck on 14 April 1986) killed 92 people and produced hailstones that weighed 1.02 kg.

The heaviest hailstones to fall on the United Kingdom did so at Horsham, West Sussex, on 5 September 1958 and weighed 140 g. They were almost the size of a tennis ball. When they hit the ground, they were travelling at speeds in excess of 100 mph (50 m/s). If you find this surprising, do a little calculation, using the formula:
V² = u² + 2as where u is the initial speed, v the terminal speed, a the acceleration (in this case, due to gravity) and s the distance travelled. For a hailstone falling from a height of 500 m through still air, v = 100 m/s! The impact of a missile the size of a tennis ball travelling this fast is much more serious than that of a cricket ball hit for six.

Should you ever get the chance, collect some large hailstones and cut them in half. You may find a layered structure, with alternate layers of clear and opaque ice (as in the picture on the right, which shows a section of a hailstone viewed by transmitted light). The layers are acquired in different parts of the storm clouds. As hailstones fall, they collect tiny water droplets, which flow around them and freeze. If no air is trapped, the ice is clear.

The storm which struck the Wokingham area of Berkshire on 9 July 1959 produced hailstones more than 2.5 cm in diameter. This storm was studied in detail by Professor Frank Ludlam of Imperial College and his team of co-workers, who produced a striking three-dimensional model of the airflow with-in the storm and explained how large multi-layered hailstones may form in such weather systems.

diagram of severe storm 3 — This three-dimensional model is taken from a paper entitled Airflow in convective storms by K.A.Browning and F.H.Ludlam published in the April 1962 issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (Volume 88, pp.117-135).

In the diagram on the right, streamlines of air in which condensation occurred are shaded. The surface areas affected by rain and hail are shown by, respectively, grey and black shading. Heights are shown in thousands of feet. Precipitation formed in air which entered the storm near position H. As shown, the precipitation was carried across relative to the storm to around 13-15,000 feet, whereupon it fell and re-entered the strong updraught near posit-ion O. Some precipitation particles reached altitu-des of 30,000 feet or more and grew into large hail-stones before falling again, forward of the strong updraught, near position H’. The storm moved from left to right, with rain on its left flank and a squally ‘gust front’ (shown as a cold front) on its right flank. Behind the storm, chilled air reached the ground.

The diagram on the right shows a vertical section through a typical severe hailstorm (moving from right to left) and is also taken from Ludlam’s 1961 article in Weather. Compare this diagram with the three-dimensional model above

The paths of the air are drawn as if the storm was stationary. They are, therefore, relative streamlines. The dashed lines are trajectories of small hailstones. The thick full line shows the trajectory of a large hailstone.

To some extent, the features shown on this vertical section occur also in vigorous cumulo-nimbus systems which do not produce large hail. Students can look out for mamma, the udder-like cloud feature that hangs under the anvil and other parts of the cloud. How are mamma formed? Students can also observe gust fronts and measure the temperature drop that occurs when a storm passes. It is often several degrees Celsius. Perhaps, with the help of someone who has a car, they can map areas of rain and hail relative to moving storms.

severe storm diagram 2 — This diagram has been taken from The microburst hazard to aircraft by J.McCarthy and R.J.Serafin, published in Weatherwise in 1984 (Volume 37, pp.120-127)

In severe storms, downdraughts may be as strong as 30-40 m/s and reach the ground as ‘down-bursts’. These are dangerous, as the diagram above shows. Downbursts spread out near the ground. An aeroplane that flies into such an outflow first encounters an increasing head-wind (at 1 and 2), which adds to the speed of the speed of the air flowing over the aircraft’s wings and thus increases lift. At 3, however, the strength of the downdraught begins to reduce the altitude of the aircraft; and at 4 and 5 the aircraft experiences both a tail-wind (which reduces air speed and lift) and a downward force from the downdraught. Over the years, there have been many air disasters caused this way, especially in North America.

Cloudbursts

On 15 August 1952, the village of Lynmouth in North Devon was devastated by a torrent of water which poured off Exmoor; 34 people died. On 29 May 1920, in and around the Lincolnshire town of Louth, 22 people died when water from a storm over the Wolds caused the River Lud, normally a small stream, to rise 5 m above its normal level. In Dorset and Somerset, there have been similar occurrences; and in all cases, severe storms caused the havoc. When such storms occur in the British Isles, the wind in the upper troposphere is typically from the south-west, with the wind in the lower troposphere from a north-easterly point (and pressure low to the south and south-west). If this flow is lifted orographically, the storm may become stationary and deposit several inches of rain in a short time. Thus, it is places below slopes that face northwards or north-eastwards that are most at risk.

Hail Prevention

To frighten away the evil spirits that caused hail, primitive tribes used to shoot arrows into storm clouds; and Christians have tried to exorcise these spirits by ringing church bells (a dangerous practice because of lightning strikes on bell towers). Not only arrows, but also cannon-balls, artillery shells and rockets have been fired into storm clouds, but all to no avail. Though there is some evidence that cloud seeding may help to reduce the size of hailstones, there is nothing we can yet do to prevent the formation of severe storms.

Changing Climate: Climate Stripes

Post date 23 November 2020

Image reproduced with permission from Ed Hawkins. https://showyourstripes.info

This image shows the warming stripes for the whole globe from 1850 – 2019. These ‘warming stripe’ graphics are visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country over the past 100+ years. Each stripe represents the temperature in that country averaged over a year.

Go to https://showyourstripes.info and select climate stripes for a region of your choice.

Which region did you choose?
How has the temperature of your region changed over the period?
Roughly what proportion of the graph is mainly blue, and what proportion is mainly red? You could use a ruler to measure the graph to help you estimate this:
Width of mainly blue area (w1) =
Width of mainly red area (w2) =
Total width (w1+w2) =
Proportion of blue (w1 / total) =
Proportion of red (w2/ total) = .
How does that compare to the graph for the whole world, shown above?
Width of mainly blue area (w1) =
Width of mainly red area (w2) =
Total width (w1+w2) =
Proportion of blue (w1 / total) =
Proportion of red (w2/ total) = .
Looking at the stripes for your region, when does it look like the temperatures were changing fastest?
Looking at the stripes for the whole world, when does it look like the temperatures were changing fastest?

Extension Question: How do the climate stripes demonstrate the difference between weather and climate?

UK Synoptic Charts: Pressure and Wind Skills Exercise

Post date 23 November 2020

Skills Exercise

You will need an Atlas for these activities

Identify on the map a country experiencing HIGH pressure.
What type of air pressure is arriving in the UK?
What is the lowest value of pressure shown on the map?
What is the air pressure over Greenland?
What is the air pressure over Northern Africa?
Identify an area that would have STRONG winds (the isobars will be close together)
Identify an area that would have WEAK winds (the isobars will be far apart)

EXTENSION– can you draw simple arrows to show the pattern of wind over the UK on the small inset map? (recall that wind moves from high to low and is deflected to the left in the Northern hemisphere)

3D Print the Weather

Post date 19 November 2020

The RMetS is delighted to have collaborated with CREATE Education to develop instructions to allow schools to 3D print sections of the Central England Temperature Record and use their models to learn about weather, climate, extreme weather and climate change.

These engaging, tactile resources allow students to get a hands-on experience of what climate is and how it can change, and how extreme weather relates to the climate.

The Central England Temperature (CET) data record is the longest instrument record of temperature in the world, with average monthly temperature each month from January 1659 to December 2018.

This project and the accompanying resources allow you to create 3D models that will represent 10 years of temperature data. The models have been designed to interlink, so students can create a series of models to represent larger timeframes. Once the 3D models have been created and 3D printed, there is a tactile resource that can be used in multiple ways in the classroom to visualise and study past weather and climate, and at how the climate of the UK has been changing over time.

Download the Teacher Guide
Download the Lesson Resources

The lesson resources specifically focus on

1. The difference between climate and weather

2. The current climate of the UK

3. The changing climate of the UK

4. Looking at past extreme weather events and researching their impacts on people in the UK.

Further resources to teach weather, climate, correlation, photosynthesis, regression, the carbon cycle, isotopes and more.

Further resources past climate change teaching resources for secondary geography.

Depressions – Identifying Features

Post date 19 November 2020

Identify the weather features on the synoptic (weather) chart below:

Cold Front

Warm Front

Highest pressure

Depression

Anticyclone

Isobar

Occluded Front

Strong Wind

Light Wind

Lowest Pressure

Advanced

Northerly Wind

Northwesterly Wind

Southwesterly Wind

(hint the clouds in the images below are cirrus, cumulonimbus, cumulus and nimbostratus)

Pop-up Depression

Post date 19 November 2020

Print, cut-out and fold along the lines to make a 3D model of a depression.

Drawing Pressure and Temperature Contours (Intermediate)

Post date 19 November 2020

Drawing Temperature and Pressure Contours

Lines of equal temperature – temperature contours, are called isotherms.

In this exercise, the task is to draw the 8.5°C, 6.5°C and 2.5°C isotherms. The 10.5°C and 4.5°C isotherms have already been drawn to help.

Start with the 8.5°C isotherm. This is the line which has everything warmer than 8.5°C on one side of it, and everything colder than 8.5°C on the other side. You could use a coloured pencil to colour in the dots for everywhere that is warmer than 8.5°C. Your isotherm is then the line which separates your coloured dots from the uncoloured ones.

Next, try the 2.5°C isotherm. For this, you could use a different colour to shade the dots for everywhere that is colder than 2.5°C.

Lastly, draw the 6.5°C isotherm. This will be very close to the 4.5°C isotherm in places, so be careful! To help with this, you could use a 3rd colour to shade the places where the temperature is 7 or 8°C, and a 4th colour to shade the places where the temperature is 5 or 6°C. Your line will divide the two.

Remember, contours can never touch or cross each other (it can’t be 8.5°C and 6.5°C at the same place!). The line should start and finish at an edge of the page.

Lines of equal pressure – pressure contours, are called isobars.

In this exercise, the task is to draw the 1016, 1012, 1008 and 1004mb isobars. However, to save space on the map, the pressure values have been recorded in shorthand – so 9 or 09 is short for 1009, 11 is short for 1011 etc.

On this map, we have some extra clues – these weather observations indicate the wind speed by the tail on the symbol. The wind is blowing from the tail of the arrow to the centre (the bars on the tail of the arrow tell you the wind speed) so –o is a wind blowing from the west to the east, or o—is a wind blowing from the east to the west. The wind tends to blow along the pressure contours, so your contours need to be roughly parallel to the tails on the closest weather symbols.

Start with the 1016mb contour. Where on the map are there places where the pressure is higher than that? If it helps, colour in those symbols where the value is greater than 16. Your pressure contour needs to divide those symbols from the others.

Now use a different colour to shade the symbols where the pressure value is 13, 14 or 15. Can you now draw the 1012mb isobar?

Again, use a different colour to shade the symbols where the pressure value is 9, 10 or 11. Can you now draw the 1008mbar contour?

Lastly, is there anywhere where the pressure is under 1004mb? If so, draw the 1004mb contour to separate off that observation from the others.

These two maps both correspond to the same weather situation. Can you work out what is going on?

Clues:

– Where is the pressure lowest?

– How is the wind direction changing across the map?

– In general, where is the temperature lower and where is it higher?

– Where is the temperature changing most rapidly? Remember that a front is where cold and warm air meets. You can use the wind information on the second map to see where the cold air is pushing into the warm air (a cold front) or whether the warm air is pushing into cold air (a warm front).

Drawing Pressure and Temperature Contours (Harder)

Post date 19 November 2020

Drawing Isobars

Isobars are lines of constant pressure. Drawing the isobars reveals features (eg highs, lows, ridges and troughs) which help us understand the weather.

When trying to draw isobars, remember the following

– You are trying to draw the isobars of pressure for the values below the
graph

– The symbols on the map give the observed pressure and wind speed and
direction. Remember that the wind is blowing from the tail of the arrow
to the centre. The bars on the tail of the arrow tell you the wind speed:

– The wind blows almost parallel to the isobars (they are usually blow
slightly more towards the centre of the low pressure area). If you stand
with your back to the wind in the northern hemisphere the pressure is
lower on your left than on your right.

– Isobars tend to be parallel to each other, don’t wiggle and never cross.

– The closer the isobars are to each other, the stronger the wind. You can
use the bars on the tail of the weather station symbol to give you the
Beaufort force of the wind. Look at the scale at the top of the map (this is
called the ‘geostrophic scale’). The distance from the left hand edge of
the scale to the force at the symbol gives you the spacing between 2mbar
isobars at that point.

Draw the 1004, 1008, 1012 and 1016 isobars (noting that they have been recorded in shorthand, such that 1004 becomes 04 etc.) remembering that the wind tends to blow parallel to the isobars. Can they see what sort of a weather system it is, and where the fronts might be?

Draw the 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, 8.5 and 10.5 isotherms (lines of equal temperature), remembering that sometimes, if there isn’t any data in a particular place, you have to make an educated guess about what the contour might look like. Is it more obvious now what the structure of the weather system is?

Shade the areas of rain, heavy rain and drizzle in the map below. Is it more obvious now what the structure of the weather system is?

Recommended Resources to Support the Teaching of Weather and Climate within this Specification

Resources for 14-16 Year Old Students

Air Masses

Past Climate Change

Rainfall

Weather Systems and Synoptic Charts

Tropical Weather

Other Weather

Other recommended resources:

Including hail, downdraughts and cloudbursts

Cloudbursts

Hail Prevention

Drawing Temperature and Pressure Contours

Drawing Isobars

Subscribe to MetLink updates

Weather and climate resources and events for teachers