Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide
Pathway: Extending Weather
Pressure and Wind – Water in the Atmosphere – Anticyclones – Depressions
Lesson overview: In this lesson we look at the causes of Low pressure systems and the weather they bring to the UK.
Depressions or low pressure weather systems, bring most of the ‘normal’ and ‘extreme’ weather that we experience in the UK. Driven by rising air, they mix colder and warmer air masses, forming fronts where these meet and bringing a predictable progression of weather as they pass over the UK. Their approach is typically first signalled by high cirrus cloud, which eventually develops into rain-bearing stratus. Once this passes there may be higher temperatures and less precipitation for a while, before towering cumulonimbus clouds arrive bringing heavy rainfall followed by lower temperatures and scattered showers.
Learning objectives:
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To understand what low pressure is.
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To know what weather a depression system brings to the UK.
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To be able to draw and explain weather fronts.
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To understand how weather changes in the UK as a depression passes over
Key Teaching Resources
Depressions PowerPoint
Depressions PowerPoint (easier)
Depressions Worksheet
Depressions Worksheet (easier)
Depressions Homework
Depressions animation worksheet
Pop-up Depression
Teacher CPD/ Extended Reading
Alternative or Extension Resources
Further resources for teaching about depressions, anticyclones and fronts.
Template worksheet for creating a case study of a named storm – with Storm Eunice as a worked example.
Alternatively … you could get today’s weather chart and ask students to write a forecast for a place in the UK … or capture the weather forecast, from YouTube or similar, without the sound and ask students to write (and present) the commentary to go with it.
