Ask your children if they can find out the lowest and highest temperature recorded for your hometown. One way to make this activity fun is to have two jars with either marbles or jelly beans that have the number of degrees for the town's records. You can represent a negative temperature by drawing a line representing zero and adding the number of items that it equals. Kids can research by calling the local weatherman or asking at the library. Reward their hard work by giving the jars to the winning guessers. To find the answers yourself, consult the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) website. Navigate to the Satellite and Information Service page on U.S. State Climate Extremes.
In 2011 alone, more than 500 tornado deaths were reported in the United States. Educate your students about tornado safety and behavior by engaging their curiosity about this particularly fascinating extreme weather. Discuss the sizes of tornadoes and the extreme distance, wind velocity and damage that they can wreak. The National Severe Storms Laboratory--a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--has a comprehensive website on tornadoes, their sizes and the affects they have on both people and property. Discuss "tornado alley," which is the Mid-Western zone most affected by tornadoes, and "Dixie Alley" which is the most affected area in the Southern states.
Hurricanes Katrina, Andrew and Camille were all extremely destructive storms. All of these historical events give teachers an opportunity to discuss the power of hurricanes and how such natural disasters affect both the United States and less developed countries, such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Discuss how these storms are formed and what the difference is between a tropical storm and the different categories of hurricanes. Discuss the history of picking names. Bring up the current list of hurricane names and point out how they follow alphabetical order. There are three different set of names, one for the North Atlantic, the Eastern North Pacific and the Central North Pacific.
Depending on the year in which you are teaching, a great deal of interest can be generated by the news of the cyclical weather patterns displayed by El Nino. This phenomenon of high winds is caused every two to seven years by a fluctuation in sea surface temperature and the air pressure of the atmosphere. You can discuss the differences between the weather patterns in an El Nino year or the absence of it, known as El Nina. You can find out more about these fascinating weather patterns by reading at the NOAA website by navigating to Climate Services and Monitoring Division's page dedicated to El Nino.