EARTH SCIENCE

WEATHER

The GLOBE Program
http://www.globe.gov/
The GLOBE (Global learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program is a world-wide network of students, teachers and scienctists engaged in a tele-collaboration project to do meaningful real-life science. In the GLOBE Program, students make environmental observations and report their data findings on the internet. Scientists use the students' data to formulate amospheric models and provide feedback to the students. The measurements conducted by the students include air temperature, cloud observations, precipitation, surface water temperature and pH, soil moisture, biometrics, land cover assessment, and species identification. Students also share findings and communicate with other students using e-mail from the web site. GLOBE includes excellent descriptions of equipment and procedures for data acquisition and a user-friendly searchable data archive. The unique aspect of the GLOBE Program is that students are interactive partners with scientists.

Weather Underground: TropicaL Weather
http://www.wunderground.com:80/tropical/
Weather Underground: Tropical is an excellent resource for teachers wishing to incorporate the study of tropical weather into their curriculum. This web site contains a variety of weather maps including satellite image maps, surface maps, and contour maps. This web site also provides information on past hurricanes.

Hurricane Tracking
http://hurricane.terrapin.com/
Hurricane Tracking from the University of Maryland keeps you in touch with the latest data from the hurricane planes during storms.

WeatherOnline!
http://www.weatheronline.com/
Weather Online was developed by the Weather Network. This site is a good informational site for students to use for researching concepts related to weather or as supplementary material for a weather unit. The main areas of this site are Tropical Weather, Local Weather, Expert Weather, Weather Tools, Weather Q & A, and Weatherboy Online. The two areas that would be most informative for students are the Local Weather and the Weatherboy Online. The Local Weather allows students to get weather information for any area in the United States. The information includes 4-day forecasts, satellite images, precipication, and radar images. Also, there is an area called Dr. Dewpoint, where questions can be answered. This area also incorporates math (algebra) concepts such as calculating wind chill or making temperature conversions. Weatherboy Online is another good place for students to visit. Weatherboy is an animated character that explains the how's and why's of weather.

Lowe's Storm 99 Hurricane Central
http://www.gopbi.com/weather/storm/
In addition to storm tracking, this site contains numerous photos and movies. There are also some Shockwave animations of tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes. Finally, the site contains discussion forums and chat areas on many severe weather related topics.

Hurricane Hunters Home Page
http://www.hurricanehunters.com/
The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters of the Air Force Reserve, is the only Department of Defense organization flying into tropical storms and hurricanes on a routine basis. Lots of cool pictures and neat information here. Contains information on careers related to severe weather.

SuperStorm '93
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/crclm/prjct/strm93/home.rxml
This project investigates key weather processes and phenomena associated with a potent winter storm. Good inquiry activity.

Online Guide to Meteorology
http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/guide.html
Online Guide to Meteorology is a website developed by the Covis group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This site was developed to be an interactive learning site for students. The following topics are included in modules, which explain the basic concepts of meteorology: TDP ARchives, Atmospheric Pressure, Atmospheric Optics, Cloud Catalogue, El Nino, Forces and Winds, Guides to Fronts, Hurricanes, Guide to Weather Maps, Land Sea Breezes-Lake Effect Snow, Severe Storm Spotters Guide, Severe Weather Outbreaks from April 19, 1996, Units for Elementary School Kids, and Other Instructional Resources. These modules provide an excellent area for students to research certain aspects of weather. These modules explain the basic concepts of weather and provide diagrams that will be helpful for students in understanding weather. This site also has project ideas and other resources that would be helpful to teachers in planning weather units. Some areas of this site are in the process of being updated, moved or still being developed and may be hard to access. Teachers need to preview this site before using it with the students, in order to be familar with what areas are difficult to access. This will decrease the frustration students may have.

WRAL Online - WeatherCenter
http://www.wral-tv.com/weather/
This Raleigh, NC station provides weather information that would be useful for students in North Carolina and around the United States. It is also possible to chat with a meteorologist.

CNN-Weather
http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/index.html
The At CNN's weather web sit, students can find weather forecasts for across the US or across the world. Weather maps are also available for any area in the world. A storm center is also available for up-to-date information on current storms or to learn about past storms. Students can also find current news stories on any current major weather situations.

The Guide to Weather Maps and Images
http://covis.atmos.uiuc.edu/guide/wmaps/html/weather.home.html
This site is a part of the Online Guide to Meteorology Website developed by the Covis group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A guide to reading weather maps is available here. It explains the meaning of symbols most often found on weather maps. A little exploring is necessary on this site to find all the information. The features covered are Coorinated Universal Time (UTC), Temperature conversions, Surface observation symbols, Surface Contours, and upper level observation symbols.

NC Stormtrack
http://ncstormtrack.com/
This site allows students to track past hurricanes with given data. Also, weather maps, photos, videos, a storm guide, and current weathernews stories can be found here.

Wind and Sea - An Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Internet Locator
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/docs/windandsea.html

El Niño Theme Page: Accessing Distributed Information Related to El Niño
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/home.html

NOVA On-line El Niño
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elnino/

NOAA's NHC Hurricane Andrew page
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1992andrew.html