Weather

    WEATHER - GENERAL INFORMATION

    Flash Riprock and the Bolt from the Blue This is a lightning safety poster in pdf format that can be downloaded. It also lists lightning myths that need to be dispelled.
    www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/lightning/flashriprock.htm

    Night of a Thousand Trains This is a tornado safety poster in pdf format that can be downloaded. It also lists tornado myths that need to be dispelled.
    www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/mesoscale/1000trains.htmh

    Frequently Asked Questions About Tornadoes This is a tornado site that gives you all the information. This list of FAQ's has been compiled from the public's questions.
    www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/#About

    NOAA's Storm Watch This is a roundup of NOAA weather Web sites. You'll find links to the latest weather forecasts around the USA and even around the world. Track storms through NOAA weather satellites, get the latest weather maps and learn how to protect yourself and your community from severe weather.
    www.noaa.gov/stormwatch

    Climate Prediction Center - The Climate Prediction Center serves the public by assessing and forecasting the impacts of short-term climate variability and emphasizing enhanced risks of weather-related extreme events. Educational materials include information on the ENSO cycle, and fact sheets and monographs.
    www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outreach/education.html

    National Weather Service - Come right to the primary source for weather forecasting and prediction. This is the home page for the National Weather Service with links to all the Weather forecast offices around the country.
    www.nws.noaa.gov

    NOAA Weather Radio - The voice of the National Weather Service. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts National Weather Service watches, warnings and forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day.
    tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrback.htm

    Past Weather - If you’re looking for past weather information, you’ve found the right place. This is a roundup of NOAA Web sites that contain archived weather information. The NOAA Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., is the world’s largest reservoir of archived climate and weather data. Official weather records date back to 1895. You can obtain certified weather information for a court case, building project or other purpose. www.noaa.gov/pastweather.html

    JetStream - Learn About Weather Online -JetStream is arranged by subject: beginning with global and large scale weather patterns followed by lessons on air masses, wind patterns, cloud formations, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, damaging winds, tornados, tropical storms, cyclones and flooding. Interspersed in JetStream are "Learning Lessons" which can be used to enhance the educational experience.
    www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/

    Aviation Weather Center Information - Provides links to a number useful sites which list weather and aviation contractions as well as other acronyms. These are helpful when reading weather maps and other materials generated by the National Weather Service.
    http://aviationweather.gov/static/info/

    Frequently Used Terms - Developed by a National Weather Service Forecast Office, there are a number of sites that include: General Forecast Terminology, Severe Weather Terms, Hydrologic Terms, Coastal/Oceanic/Marine Terms, and more.
    http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/media/appendix/glossaryf.htm

    Meteorological Calculator -With your very own meteorological calculator, you can convert air temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius, calculate wind chill, relative humidity, and heat index.
    www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/html/metcalc.shtml

    Weather Education - A variety of weather educational resource links for students, teachers, and administrators.
    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/education.php

    Historic Weather Events for the DC Area - This site provides a historical perspective of DC/Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia weather, including storms of the century and inauguration weather from the past.
    www.nws.noaa.gov/er/lwx/Historic_Events

     

    LIGHTNING AND THUNDERSTORMS

    Lightning Kills, Play it Safe Summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena - lightning. In the United States, an average of 73 people are killed each year by lightning. That's more than the annual number of people killed by tornadoes or hurricanes. Many more people are struck but survive. However, they often report a variety of long-term, debilitating symptoms, including memory loss, attention deficits, sleep disorders, numbness, dizziness, stiffness in joints, irritability, fatigue, weakness, muscle spasms, depression, and an inability to sit for long. To learn more about lightning, be sure to check out the Quick Facts.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

    An Introduction to Lightning and Lightning Safety This RealMedia production tells how to protect yourself from lightning both outside and inside the home. Lightning is the second greatest killer of people annually and there are approximately 25,000,000 cloud to ground lightning flashes annually. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/media/ltngintro.rm

    The Science of Thunderstorms and Lightning This RealMedia production tells how thunderstorms are formed and how the electrical charges become lightning. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/media/ltngscience.rm

    Lightning Safety Outside This RealMedia production tells how to assess the risks from lightning when outdoors and how to reduce the risks from danger. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/media/ltngoutside.rm

    Safe Shelters and Indoor Lightning Safety This RealMedia production tells how to protect yourself from lightning inside the home. For a shelter provide safety, it must contain a mechanism for conducting the electical current at the point of contact to the ground. Lightning can follow plumbing, electrical wiring and telephone lines to the ground. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/media/ltnginside.rm

    The Facts About Lightning Strike Victims This RealMedia production tells how lightning can change the lives of those people who have been struck by lightning. Lightning kills about 70 people a year, and provides devastation to the lives of lightning strikes victims and their families. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/media/LtngVictim.rm

     

    HURRICANES

    The National Hurricane Center Home Page - The Tropical Prediction Center home page can provide hours of interesting investigation on the subject of hurricanes. Learn from the section on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and about the history of noteworthy storms, hurricane direct hits on the mainland U.S. coastline and for individual states from 1900-1996 and lots more.
    www.nhc.noaa.gov/

    Hurricane Names - Hurricanes have names that are taken from a central list. Is your name there? Take a look at the names for the World-Wide Tropical Cyclone Names that are to be used for storms in the Atlantic and the Pacific as well as the waters around Australia, the Fiji Islands and India.
    www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

    The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale - This scale is a 1-5 rating based on the hurricane's intensity. The scale is used to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a hurricane landfall. Wind speed is the determining factor in the scale, as storm surge values are highly dependent on the slope of the continental shelf in the landfall region.
    www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml

    Hurricane Tracking Chart - You can download this gif image of the Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to northern South America and the Gulf of Mexico to track Atlantic hurricanes.
    www.nhc.noaa.gov/gifs/track_chart.gif

    Hurricane Basics - This booklet, in pdf format, provides you with the anatomy of a hurricane and the ingredients that make these killer storms come alive. Graphics help the reader understand how the storms form. As the heat and energy for the storm are gathered by the disturbance through contact with warm ocean waters, the winds near the ocean surface spiral into the disturbance's low pressure area. Learn more from this booklet.
    hurricanes.noaa.gov/pdf/hurricanebook.pdf

    Hurricane Basics - This booklet, in pdf format, provides you with the anatomy of a hurricane and the ingredients that make these killer storms come alive. Graphics help the reader understand how the storms form. As the heat and energy for the storm are gathered by the disturbance through contact with warm ocean waters, the winds near the ocean surface spiral into the disturbance's low pressure area. Learn more from this booklet.
    www.climate.noaa.gov/education/hurricanes/hurricane_basics.pdf

     

    TORNADOES

    Tornadoes...Nature's Most Violent Storms: A Preparedness Guide - Including Safety Information for Schools. This web site was created from a booklet, published by NOAA, FEMA and the American Red Cross. It explains how tornadoes are formed and what steps need to be taken to stay safe. This site also contains a Tornado Safety Plan for Schools.
    http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html

    Questions and Answers About Tornadoes - This web site provides information about tornadoes in a simple Q&A format. It focuses on the need for safety, and it provides easy to understand text about the characteristics of tornadoes.
    http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tornado/tor_faq.shtml

     

    DROUGHTS

    North American Drought: A Paleo Perspective - This site was designed to explain how paleoclimatic data can provide information about past droughts and about the natural variability of drought over timescales of decades to millennia. We note that droughts are a world wide phenomenon and affect the global community. However, the focus of these Web pages is North America.
    www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_home.html

     

    WEATHER BALLOONS

    The Weather Balloon - Learn about weather balloons - what they are, how they take observations, and how the information is used to predict the weather. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card with speakers to access this information.
    www.nws.noaa.gov/om/educ/radiosnd.rm

    Weather Balloon Video (Small Image) - Watch a weather balloon being inflated and released, then listen to the signal from the instrument (radiosonde) attached to the weather balloon as it transmits data back to the ground where the data is plotted on a computer. This is a stamp-sized version at 390kb. Your machine will need to have the "RealVideo" plug-in and a sound card to access this information.
    www.nws.noaa.gov/om/educ/wxblstmp.rm

Publication of the NOAA Education Team.
Website Owner: NOAA Office of Education.

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Last Updated: May 31, 2007 10:09 AM