Weather Facts for Kids
Wild facts about weather
The Mount Baker Ski Area in Washington State recorded the world's greatest snowfall in a single season — an incredible 1,140 inches (95 feet) of snow during the winter of 1998–1999. That is about as tall as a nine-story building of pure snow.
Rainbows are actually full circles, but we usually only see an arc because the ground blocks the lower half. From an airplane or a very high mountain, it is possible to see a complete circular rainbow — a glowing ring of color in the air.
The Beaufort Wind Scale goes from 0 (dead calm) to 12 (hurricane-force winds). It was invented by British Admiral Francis Beaufort in 1805 so that sailors could describe wind strength consistently without having measuring instruments on board.
Frost forms when the ground and plants cool below the freezing point overnight and water vapor in the air solidifies directly into ice crystals — skipping the liquid stage entirely. This process is called deposition and produces beautiful, intricate frost patterns on windows and leaves.
The Great Storm of 1987 battered southern England and France with winds exceeding 100 mph, uprooting approximately 15 million trees overnight. It was one of the most destructive storms to hit the UK in 300 years, and a BBC weather forecaster famously dismissed concerns about it just hours before it struck.
A microburst is a sudden intense downdraft of air that crashes down from a thunderstorm and spreads outward in all directions when it hits the ground. Microbursts are extremely dangerous to aircraft during takeoff and landing, and they have been responsible for several deadly plane crashes.
Relative humidity tells you how much water vapor the air is holding compared to the maximum it could hold at that temperature. On a hot, humid day at 100% humidity, the air is completely saturated with moisture and sweat cannot evaporate from your skin, making you feel much hotter.
When you see a double rainbow, the colors in the outer (secondary) rainbow are always in the reverse order from the inner one. This happens because light bounces twice inside water droplets to create the secondary rainbow, which also appears dimmer and higher in the sky.
Ancient Polynesian sailors could navigate across thousands of miles of open ocean partly by reading clouds. Certain clouds form over islands and mountains even when no land is visible, and skilled navigators learned to recognize these telltale cloud patterns to find their way.
The word 'monsoon' comes from the Arabic word 'mawsim,' meaning season. Arab traders noticed that winds in the Indian Ocean reversed direction every six months, and they used these predictable winds to carry them to India and back on their trading voyages.