WILD WEATHER FACTS
• Tree crickets are called the poor man's thermometer because temperature directly affects their rate of activity. Count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds, then add 37. The sum will be very close to the outside temperature!
• Poplar trees and red and silver maples flip their leaves up when air pressure is low and rain is imminent.
• Challenge your children to smell rain coming--many people can. Some scientists believe moisture and impending rain makes your nose more sensitive.
• How far away is lightning? During a storm, count the number of seconds between the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder, then divide by two. The answer reveals how many miles away the lightning is. (The thunder and lightning strike at the same time but it takes the sound longer to travel; if you see lightning and hear thunder simultaneously, you're right in the middle of the storm.)
• Dark clouds are storm clouds. Because they have high ice crystal content, light has trouble passing through them and makes them appear dark. Eventually, the crystals become so heavy that they fall to earth as either snow (when the air is cold) or rain (when the air is warm).
WILD WEATHER RECORDS
• Fastest surface wind speed: 231 mph (Mount Washington, New Hampshire; April 12, 1934)
• Fastest tornado winds: 286 mph (Wichita Falls, Texas; April 2, 1958)
• Most rainfall in one day: 73.62 inches (Reunion, Indian Ocean; March 15, 1952)
• Most rainfall in one year: 1,041 inches (Assam, India; August 1880-1881)
• Most snowfall in one day: 75.8 inches (Silver Lake, Colorado; April 14-15, 1921)
• Most snowfall in a single storm: 189 inches (Mt. Shasta, California; Feb. 13-19, 1959)
• Largest hailstone: 17.5 inches (Coffeyville, Kansas; Sept. 3, 1979)
