Weather Facts for Kids
Wild facts about weather
Cloud seeding is a technique used to encourage rainfall by releasing substances such as silver iodide into clouds, giving water droplets something to form around. China, the UAE, and the USA have all used cloud seeding to try to increase rainfall in dry regions.
The sky appears blue because the atmosphere scatters short-wavelength blue light from the Sun in all directions far more than red or yellow light, a process called Rayleigh scattering. At sunrise and sunset, sunlight passes through more atmosphere, scattering away blue light and leaving red and orange hues.
Mountain snowpack acts as a giant natural reservoir, storing water as snow in winter and releasing it gradually as meltwater in spring and summer. About one sixth of the world's population depends on glaciers and snowmelt for their fresh water supply.
The dew point is the temperature at which air becomes saturated with water vapour and water begins to condense into droplets. When the air temperature drops to the dew point overnight, dew forms on grass and leaves.
The UK is one of the world's leading producers of offshore wind energy, with turbines generating enough electricity to power millions of homes. The UK's strong and consistent Atlantic winds make it particularly well-suited to wind power.
Dry lightning occurs when lightning strikes the ground but the rain evaporates before reaching the surface. It is particularly dangerous because it can ignite wildfires in dry forests without the rain that would normally help prevent fires from spreading.
The snow line is the altitude above which snow stays on the ground all year round because it never gets warm enough to melt completely. At the equator, the snow line is around 5,000 metres above sea level, but near the poles it can reach sea level itself.
The greenhouse effect occurs when certain gases in the atmosphere — such as carbon dioxide and water vapour — absorb heat radiated from Earth's surface and prevent it from escaping into space. Without any greenhouse effect at all, Earth's average temperature would be around −18°C.
A fire rainbow (technically a circumhorizontal arc) is a rare optical phenomenon that makes a patch of cloud look like a rainbow on fire. It only occurs when the Sun is very high in the sky and light passes through horizontal ice crystals in cirrus clouds at just the right angle.
Flash floods are among the most dangerous weather events because they can occur within minutes of heavy rainfall, giving little time to escape. Moving floodwater just 15 centimetres deep can knock a person over, and 60 centimetres can sweep away a car.