Mr. Baran | 8th Grade Science Classes

Monday • (December 15th, 2008) - Looking for last week?: 12/08-12/08

Severe Historical Weather Event Presentations
Learning Goal(s): Working with a partner, students will research and present a historical weather event. Student pairs will have 2 days in which to research online and prepare their presentation to the class. Presentations are to be between 5 and 7 minutes in length. The goals are to use the knowledge and weather vocabulary gained in the Atmosphere and Weather unit to present a historical severe weather event. Criteria for the project is below.

Severe Historical Weather Event Presentation Steps & Criteria

• Choose your partner
• One of 15 States will be chosen randomly by drawing from a "hat". The States are:

Washington
Oregon
California

Arizona
Colorado
Oklahoma

Missouri
North Dakota
Louisiana

Ohio
South Carolina
Florida

Wisconsin
New York
Vermont

• Online research of weather events for your State (see links below)
• Construction of a Regional Weather Map for the event

Your map is to show the regional (multi-state) fronts and pressure locations that caused the event (or could possibly have caused the event). Your map should also indicate temperatures, cloud cover and precipitation (if any) - One partner is responsible for this map.

• Construction of a Station Model Plot for the event location

Your Station Model Plot must be for the time of the event and show current conditions during the event at (or very near) the event location. If this information cannot be found during research then probable conditions for the event should be shown on the Station Model Plot. - One partner is responsible for the Station Model Plot. (See example on Tuesday's information)

• Severe Weather Event Forecast

The Severe Weather Event Forecast is to be as a presentation in front of class done by one partner using both the Regional Weather Map and Station Model Plot as props. You'll use the "Elmo" projection system.

• Severe Weather Event Aftermath

The Severe Weather Event Aftermath is to be as a presentation in front of class done by one partner using photographs of the weather event and its aftermath (causes). If original photos of the event cannot be found then similar weather photos and photos of weather damage may be used.

• This Project/Presentation is worth one Test Grade.

One student is responsible for both the Regional Weather Map (50%) and the Event Forecast Presentation (50%). The other student is responsible for the Station Model Plot (50%) and the Event Aftermath Presentation (50%). Grading will be made on quality and completeness of materials used (containing all criteria on map and station model and how well these materials/props can be read/viewed), presentation skills (use/knowledge of props/vocabulary and voice loud enough to hear by whole class).

Due date: Wednesday & Thursday, 12/17 & 18.

Here are some links to get you started on your Severe Weather Event Project.
NOTE: Once you find an event you can then search online for it on Google. You may not be able to find all the information you need from these three links alone.

Tuesday • (December 16th)

Severe Historical Weather Event Presentations
Learning Goal(s): Students will researching their historical weather event and constructing the weather map and station model plots. Examples for the Weather Map and Station Models are shown below.

• Regional Weather Map (Example)

This example would be for the state of Nebraska where an extremely bad ice storm occurred in Lincoln. The map is large enough to show the conditions that caused, or could have caused, the ice storm (containing parts of other states).

Note all that is shown for this event: Low Pressure system, Warm Front, temperatures, air mass types, an arrow pointing to Lincoln, Nebraska and a gray shaded area showing the extent of the ice storm.
This is not a real event (but it could be). Rain from the warm front sloping over the top of Lincoln drops down into much colder temperatures at ground level around Lincoln forming ice as a slow moving warm front passes over Lincoln.

• Station Model Plot (Example)

Here's a Station Model Plot example for Lincoln at the time of the ice storm event. An explanation of the model is below the plot.

• Here are three useful links on Station Models:


Listing of all symbols	Cloud symbols explained	Cloud types explained

The current temperature	Type of high clouds	Current atmospheric pressure (1001.0 mb)
Precipitation - freezing rain	Percent of cloud cover	Pressure change (none)
The current Dew Point	Type of low clouds and height above ground	Wind direction and speed (SE of 5 kt)

Wednesday • (December 17th)

Severe Historical Weather Event Presentations
Learning Goal(s): Students will be presenting their historical weather events.

Thursday • (December 18th) • NO SCHOOL - SNOW - below is why!

Severe Historical Weather Event - Maybe happening right now????
• Current Weather Map for today: Roll your mouse/cursor over the image below. The additions are mine and an explanation is below. The weather map is from the NOAA (link below).

• Map Explanation:

When you rollover the map you'll see pink and yellow arrows (with Washington shaded green). The pink arrows point to the wind direction/speed Station Model Plot symbols. Notice that the wind is fairly strong out in the Pacific (40 to 25 knots) and that the wind is counterclockwise around the western most Low (L). This wind continues along the WA/OR border and right to the Low that is directly over Spokane. Now look at the yellow arrows. They point to the current temperatures (for early Thursday morning). Just before this air/wind comes onshore from the Pacific it is in the 40s. Air in the 40s can absorb quite a bit of moisture from the Pacific Ocean. As it moves across northern Oregon it is cooling down into the 30s. At the Station Model Plot for Pendleton, Oregon it looks like the dew point is 22º. For Pullman is looks like 17º. What this means is that for our temperatures in Spokane (around the same as the dew points for the air headed towards us) we're going to get snow. This is greatly due to the colder, dryer air coming from the NE of Spokane (see the Station Model Plots NE of us). As the warmer and more moist air from the SW collides with the colder, dryer air from the NE (right over Spokane) we get snow. For as long as these Low pressures stay in our area we're going to have continued snowfall. There is at least 2 feet of snow at our house in Chattaroy at 8:00 AM - and it is still snowing! I'd say that the chance of school being out again tomorrow is 50% or higher. Have fun in the snow! Mr. Baran

PS - If you have any snow photos you'd like to send me to put online you can send them to my home email address below. Due to school district policy I likely can't show student photos online where you can be recognized. Please only send photos of snow that show how deep it is.

Here's the link to the map above. This link can also be found on the week of 12/01-05/08.