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Weather Patterns

Lesson 2.3: Simulating a Large Storm

Lesson purpose: to help students understand that the higher the temperature of an air parcel, the higher it will rise in the troposphere; the higher the air parcel rises, the more it will cool and lose energy, which will lead to more rainfall�

Please refer to this lesson’s Materials & Preparation section in the digital Teacher’s Guide or the print Teacher’s Guide for information about preparing to teach this lesson, including any applicable safety notes. Below are links to resources used in this lesson.

Weather Patterns Sim

Weather Patterns Data Tool activity: Weather Data Analysis

“Disaster in California!”

Printable Article: “Disaster in California!”

Weather Patterns Investigation Notebook, pages 48–53

Weather Patterns Glossary

Weather Patterns Multi-Language Glossary

Note: These materials are made available exclusively for use by students and teachers for whom the corresponding materials have been purchased or licensed from Amplify. Any alterations you make should only be shared within your own school or district. Any other distribution or reproduction of these materials is forbidden without written permission from Amplify.

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Warm-Up

Activity 1

5 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Investigation Notebook pg 49

Activity 1

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Rereading “Disaster in California!”

Activity 2

20 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Investigation Notebook pg 49

Activity 2 - Screen 1

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Let’s review today’s Warm-Up.

What order did you put the weather events in, and why?

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 1

Today, you will reread part of this article to get a deeper understanding of what can cause severe storms with large amounts of rain.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 1

You will reread the section “What Caused the Great Flood of 1862?”

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 1

Before the Great Flood of 1862, California’s weather was consistently hot and dry. Then in 1862, it experienced a series of large rainstorms that caused a megaflood.

As you read, you’ll look for the changes that occurred to cause a change in rainfall, resulting in the great flood.

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Investigation Notebook pg 50

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 1

You will need to pay careful attention to the guiding questions.

Be sure to highlight important sentences or phrases that help answer the questions.

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Investigation Notebook pg 50

Activity 2 - Screen 1

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Investigation Notebook pg 50

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 1

Let’s discuss what information you found in the article to help you answer the guiding questions.

👉Teacher action:

Lead a brief class discussion about information students gained from the article and from answering the questions. Whenever possible, guide students to refer to the text when explaining how they gathered information to answer the guiding questions.

💬Ask students:

Why did the warm temperatures lead to more rainfall?
What happens when an air parcel rises higher in the troposphere?
When does an air parcel stop losing energy?

🙋Students may respond:

Warmer air means more evaporation and more water vapor in a parcel. Warmer air parcels also rise higher in the troposphere and so they lose more energy and cool more.
When an air parcel rises higher in the troposphere, it enters colder and colder temperatures, it changes its temperature more, and it loses more energy to become stable. The more energy it loses, the more it cools, and the more liquid water condenses, leading to more rainfall.
The air parcel stops losing energy when it becomes stable. The air parcel rises until the temperature is equal to the temperature of the surrounding air.

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 2

You read the word pattern in the article. Looking for patterns is one way scientists can understand the evidence they collect.

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Vocabulary

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Activity 2 - Screen 2

something we observe to be similar over and over again

pattern

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Simulating Rainstorms

Activity 3

20 MIN

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

You read about the causes of the Great Flood of 1862.

Today, you’ll use the Sim to better understand the conditions that cause such large storms.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Running tests in the Sim will help us answer the question we’ve been investigating.

Investigation Question:�What determines how much an air parcel will cool?

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

You’ll work with a partner to make clouds with:

severe rain
moderate rain
very severe rain

I’ll show you how to do the first one.

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Investigation Notebook pg 51

Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

I will model Test 1: making a cloud with severe rain.

You’ll record the data in this table as a reference for your own testing.

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Investigation Notebook pgs 51–52

Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Activity 3

👉Teacher action (Option 1):

Open the Sim and model creating a cloud with severe rain.

In Build, set the surface water level to 5.
If I want a cloud with severe rain, I would need a fairly large amount of energy transferred out of the parcel when it condenses. I’ll set the sunlight level to 4.
Set the sunlight to surface level to 4.
Go to Run and observe. Point out the water vapor level and temperature of the air parcel. Remind students the starting temperature of the air parcel is the temperature after it gets heated (shown in red in the Sim) and before it rises. Point out the final height of the air parcel and the temperature of the troposphere at that height.
Have students record the air parcel height [6.5 km] and the temperature of the troposphere at that height [-30°C].
Go to Analyze. Point out that the rainfall level is 3.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

For these tests, we’ll use Regional Weather 1 mode.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Let’s set the Surface Water at level 5.

We will keep the surface water at level 5 for all of our tests today.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

To make a cloud with severe rain, we’ll need a fairly large amount of energy transferred out of the parcel when it condenses. Let’s set the Sunlight to Surface at level 4.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

In Run, let’s observe our air parcel as sunlight hits the surface.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Our air parcel has 47 kg of water vapor.

The temperature turned red at 35°C. That’s the temperature after warming, which we call the starting temperature.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Now we can observe what happens to our air parcel after it has warmed up.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Our air parcel rose to a final height of 6.5 km.

We can see that the temperature of the surrounding air at that height is -30°C.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

In Analyze, we can look at the data and check if we created our weather event successfully.

The rainfall level is 3, so we succeeded! We made a cloud with severe rain.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Investigation Notebook pg 51

Record the data from our first weather event.

-30°C

6.5 km

35°C

-30°C

65°C

168 MJ

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

To create a cloud with severe rain, we set the Sunlight level to 4.

How could you change the sunlight to create a cloud with moderate rain? Explain your thinking.

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Investigation Notebook pgs 51–52

Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Complete Test 2 and Test 3 and record your data in the table.

Then, respond to the questions.

👉Teacher action:

Give partners several minutes to make the other two rainstorms.
One partner can run the tests in the Sim and the other partner can record data in the data table. They can take turns testing and recording, but both partners should have all data filled in after the tests.
Circulate and provide support as needed.�

On-the-Fly Assessment 7: �Investigating How Temperature Affects Amount of Rain�Look for: This activity provides an opportunity for students to observe how the amount of rain can vary depending on how much energy an air parcel loses (Level 2 of the Progress Build). It is important for students to pay close attention to the different components in the Sim in order to build the connection. It is also important that students are varying the amount of sunlight, which changes the air parcel’s starting temperature. The more sunlight there is, the higher the starting temperature of the air parcel will be and the higher it will rise in the troposphere. This will result in the final temperature of the air parcel being lower because the troposphere is colder higher up. It is important that students notice that this Air Parcel Temperature Difference (given in Analyze) is proportional to Energy Transferred Out (also in Analyze). Students may build on knowledge from Chapter 1 that the more an air parcel loses energy, the more rainfall will happen. This is how more energy from the sun can cause there to be more rainfall. If would be helpful, as you circulate the classroom, to make sure students are understanding what each column of the data table on their Amplify Science screens means and why it matters that they are actively engaged in the Simulation.�Now what? If students are not making the connections between starting temperature, temperature difference, energy transfer, parcel height, and amount of rain, have them focus on two columns of the table at a time. After they fill out their data table, prompt them to look at temperature difference and energy transferred out. Ask them if they notice any patterns and guide them to understand that as the temperature difference increases, the energy transferred out also increases. Ask students to think about what would cause a larger temperature difference or larger energy transfer. Have them focus on the starting temperature and energy transferred out and notice any patterns. Guide them to see that a higher starting temperature leads to more energy transferred out. Ask students to think about what causes the air parcel to cool. Have them look at starting temperature and the air parcel height. Guide them to see that the higher the temperature, the higher it goes in the troposphere where it will cool more. Remind students that rain happens when water vapor cools and condenses. Have them find the weather event with the most cooling and most rain to determine what conditions are needed.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Let’s discuss any patterns you noticed in temperature and energy transfer as you ran your tests in the Sim.

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Key Concept

Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

3.

(Revised) As an air parcel rises, energy transfers from the warm air parcel to the cold surrounding air until their temperatures become equal.

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

Look back at the data from your tests in the Sim.

What pattern do you see in the factors that cause more rain?

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Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

In this activity, we focused on the starting temperature of the air parcel.

How does the starting temperature influence the amount of rain?

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Key Concept

Activity 3

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

7.

When an air parcel starts with a higher temperature, it will rise higher and lose more energy, causing more rainfall.

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Homework

Activity 4

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Activity 4

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

For this activity, you’ll use what you’ve learned to answer the Investigation Question: What determines how much an air parcel will cool?

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Investigation Notebook pg 53

Activity 4

Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

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Weather Patterns: Lesson 2.3

End of Lesson

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