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Weather & Climate: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Weather vs Climate
Weather is what’s happening in the sky today. Climate is the average weather of a place over about 30 years.
Key fact
Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.
Clouds & Rain
Clouds are tiny water droplets or ice crystals. When droplets merge and grow heavy enough, they fall as rain, snow or hail.
Key fact
Falling raindrops are shaped more like burger buns than teardrops.
Wind & Storms
Wind is air moving from high pressure to low pressure. Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same kind of storm, named by where they form.
Key fact
A hurricane’s calm centre is called the eye.
The Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat that Earth gives off, keeping the planet warm enough for life. Adding more of them traps more heat.
Key fact
Without it, Earth would average about −18 °C.
Climate Change
Burning fossil fuels has raised carbon dioxide levels by about 50% since 1750. Earth has warmed by about 1.3 °C, bringing more heatwaves and rising seas.
Key fact
The ten warmest years on record have all come since 2015.
Climate Zones
Near the equator, sunlight hits directly and it stays warm; near the poles, it arrives at a low angle and it stays cold. That creates climate zones.
Key fact
The hottest air temperature on record is 56.7 °C, in Death Valley.
Forecasting
Forecasts come from supercomputers crunching data from satellites, balloons and weather stations. Today’s five-day forecast is about as good as a one-day forecast was in 1980.
Key fact
Weather balloons are launched twice a day around the world.
Fun facts
About 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was green, with lakes, grasslands and hippos.
A small fluffy cumulus cloud can hold around 500 tonnes of water, about as heavy as 100 elephants.
Hurricanes spin anticlockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it.
In 1856, Eunice Foote showed that air with more carbon dioxide warms up more in sunlight.
In 1896, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius calculated that more carbon dioxide in the air would warm the planet.
Even near the equator there’s ice: Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, still has glaciers on its summit.
Meteorology is named after Aristotle’s book Meteorologica, written about 2,300 years ago.
Story: The Captain Who Invented Forecasts
The Captain Who Invented Forecasts
1859. A storm sinks the steamship Royal Charter off Wales, and hundreds drown. Robert FitzRoy, once captain of Darwin’s ship, the Beagle, is shaken.
Gathering weather reports by telegraph, he sends out storm warnings. In 1861, The Times prints his first daily “forecasts”, a word he coined.
When forecasts went wrong, newspapers mocked him. But his warnings saved sailors’ lives, and his small office grew into today’s Met Office.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Climate describes long-term average weather.
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True. Usually measured over about 30 years.
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Question 2 of 10
Clouds are made of tiny droplets or ice crystals.
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True. Far too small and light to fall at first.
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Question 3 of 10
Hurricanes and typhoons are the same kind of storm.
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True. Typhoon is the name used in the western Pacific.
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Question 4 of 10
Earth’s natural greenhouse effect keeps the planet warmer.
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True. Without it, Earth would be frozen.
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Question 5 of 10
Carbon dioxide in the air has risen sharply since the 1700s.
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True. By about 50%, mostly from burning fossil fuels.
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Question 6 of 10
The equator gets more direct sunlight than the poles.
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True. The Sun is high overhead there all year.
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Question 7 of 10
Supercomputers help make weather forecasts.
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True. They simulate the atmosphere forward in time.
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Question 8 of 10
One cold day proves the climate isn’t warming.
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False. A single day is weather. Climate is the long-term trend.
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Question 9 of 10
Raindrops are shaped like teardrops.
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False. Small ones are round; bigger ones flatten like buns.
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Question 10 of 10
The eye of a hurricane is its windiest part.
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False. The eye is calm; the strongest winds surround it.
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KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Weather & Climate has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- UK Met Office — Weather and climate explained
- NASA — Climate change evidence and the greenhouse effect
- NOAA — Global climate report and hurricane basics
- World Meteorological Organization — Weather and climate extremes archive
- IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report (2023)
- NOAA — El Niño and La Niña; lightning facts
- British Antarctic Survey — Ice cores and climate change
