Charting Weather Conditions

STEP 1
Have your kids begin by filling in all the entries on the weather chart they can without your assistance: date and time, present temperature, wind direction, and wind speed (still, breeze, light wind, and so on).

STEP 2
The first time the kids take readings at their station, be sure they leave the entry for the day's maximum/minimum temperatures blank. From then on, the kids will be filling in the blank from the previous day. Remind them to reset the thermometer routinely.

STEP 3
Record the level of the barometer and note whether it has been falling or rising. Check the rain gauge and enter the level on the daily conditions and the precipitation charts, resetting the gauge after you finish.

STEP 4
The last conditions involve making observations. Rate the visibility from low to excellent, depending on how clearly you can see things at a distance. Rate the cloud cover from clear to partly cloudy to full cover. Finally, using photographs in the Cloud Book, identify the kind of clouds you see, if any.

STEP 5
Using the information they have gathered, your kids are ready to make their own forecasts, matching their talents against those of professionals. Be sure they write them down: A lot of the fun is in seeing how often the kids get it right. Cirrus clouds, which look like feathers, for instance, foretell good weather if the wind is blowing from west, northwest, or north, while they foretell rain if the winds are steady from the northeast, east, or south. Read the barometer (a rising level indicates clearing, fair weather; a falling level means the possibility of rain) and take into account the wind speed (high winds signal imminent change).