Weather Facts for Kids
Wild facts about weather
The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth's surface was -128.6°F (-89.2°C) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. At that temperature, exposed skin freezes in seconds and even metal becomes extremely brittle.
Lightning strikes the Earth about 100 times every single second, meaning around 8 million lightning bolts hit the planet every day. Most of them occur over tropical regions where warm, moist air creates frequent thunderstorms.
The eye of a hurricane is a calm, nearly clear area at the very center of the storm. While the surrounding eyewall has the most violent winds and rainfall, the eye itself can have light winds and even blue skies — some survivors have described it as eerily peaceful.
Mawsynram, a village in northeastern India, is considered the wettest place on Earth, receiving an average of about 467 inches (11,871 mm) of rain per year. During the monsoon season, residents sometimes line the inside of their homes with thick grass to muffle the thunderous sound of rain on their roofs.
Snow is not always white. Watermelon snow — which is actually pink or red — appears on mountain snowfields because of an alga called Chlamydomonas nivalis that thrives in cold conditions. Black, orange, and yellow snow have also been observed due to pollution or dust.
Sun dogs are bright spots of light that appear on either side of the Sun on cold days. They form when sunlight passes through ice crystals floating in thin clouds, bending the light into colorful patches that look like two extra suns.
The fastest wind speed ever recorded during a tornado was 301 mph (484 km/h), measured near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This was measured by a mobile Doppler radar system near the ground.
The Asian monsoon is the world's largest weather system, bringing heavy rains to billions of people across South and Southeast Asia every summer. India receives about 80% of its annual rainfall during the four-month monsoon season.
Dew forms on grass and leaves at night when the ground cools down and water vapor in the air condenses into liquid droplets. You will see the most dew on clear, calm nights when heat escapes the ground most easily.
Weather balloons are launched twice a day from around 900 stations worldwide to measure temperature, humidity, and wind speed high in the atmosphere. They can rise to altitudes of about 115,000 feet (35 km) — the stratosphere — before they burst and fall back to Earth with a small parachute.