Life of Joey5 Pranav and Katrina

Going on a road tripJoey packed up his things and threw his backpack to

the floor. It was finally summer, and he and his family were going to go on a road trip. Their first stop was a museum depicting the history of Kansas.

After the long and laboring drive, his mom finally opened the car door. He was relieved to step out of the claustrophobic box.

"Aww, a museum?" Joey said with a sad tone."Yes, dear. We are going to a museum," said his

exasperated mother.

The MuseumWhen the guide led them to the weather section of the

museum, she commented on the menacing picture of a tornado tearing across a cornfield.

"Tornadoes, or twisters," the guide explained, "are violently moving columns of air that touch both the clouds and earth. Basically, they are closed areas of air circulation. They are very commonly found in a set of states called Tornado Alley, which includes Kansas." I suddenly felt faint with fear and the guide winked at me.

KansasJoey turned to his father as they walked back out to the

car. "Why is the sky blue, daddy?" he inquired."Well, son," his father stated, "the Sun gives off light

waves that are either short, ultraviolet, or long, infrared. These rays bounce off of the clouds and molecules in the air and become short. These short, ultraviolet waves appear blue, because blue color waves, that also radiate from the Sun, are shorter than, for example, red color waves. This reflecting of the waves off of objects in the air makes the sky look blue."

The Newspaper Map

The horrible trip through the absolute nothingness of corn, cows, and a few phone lines was driving Joey insane. When they stopped for a break, boredom forced him to leap into the mass of stuff that was plopped next to him in the back seat. He came up with a wrinkled, old newspaper in his hand. On the piece that was facing him was a weather map with lines that seemed to be in rainbow order from bottom to top.

Weather map

Isotherms and Isobars"What are those rainbow lines on the map, Mommy?"

Joey questioned.His mother strained in her seat to get a look at the map.

"Those are isotherms. They are lines that connect areas of equal temperature on a map. They show where temperatures are pretty high or low and where the changes in temperature are gradual or extreme over an expanse. Don't confuse them with isobars, which connect areas of equal or constant air pressure on a map."

"Thanks, mom," I said half-heartedly. Whoa, Joey thought, that was complicated.

FrontsThis time, Joey decided to look online to answer his

other question. He read the fine print on the map key to find out what the lines with triangles and circles on top of them were. After finding out that they were called fronts, he searched them up on Google and pulled up a web page. From the complicated result, he concluded that fronts were places where two air masses of different densities collide. There were warm fronts, cold fronts, and occluded fronts.

Types of frontsHe noticed that warm fronts are advancing warm air

masses that rise above cold air masses. A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler air mass that replaces a warmer mass of air. On the other hand, occluded fronts are fronts that form when a cold air front occludes, or obstructs, a warm front. Warm fronts bring light to moderate continuous rain and/or fog. Cold fronts bring sudden, intense weather, such as thunderstorms. After one passes through, clear skies and cool temperatures can be expected.

The Weather StationAs we pulled into Denver, Colorado, we decided to visit

the local weather station. On the tour, the guide told us about how scientists get

the images they need for weather research from satellites. Using these photos, they can see the changes or trends of the weather. He also told us about barometers, that find the air pressure, anemometers, that measure the speed of wind, hygrometers, that measure the humidity, and thermometers, that show the temperature.

The Atmosphere "The atmosphere is made up of many levels," the guide

explained, "the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, and Thermosphere. In the atmosphere are clouds, ozone, air, and dust and water molecules. The denser cold air sinks, while the less dense warm air rises. But as the warm air rises, it cools and begins to fall, as the cool air warms and begins to rise. This creates a cycle called a convection current."

Wind Currents: Doldrums, Trade WindsHe also told us about wind currents, or wind patterns,

that are winds that travel north and south because of the earth's rotation. There are the Doldrums, who are near the equator and whose surface winds are calm and weak. This would be a problem for sailors, who relied the winds to sail. There are also the Trade Winds. North and south of the equator, they are calm, and the area has few clouds and little rain. This area is also known as the Horse Latitudes.

Prevailing Westerlies and Polar Easterlies

"Along with the Doldrums and Trade Winds, the Prevailing Westerlies are strong winds that are located 30 to 60 degrees latitude in both hemispheres. They impact weather in the USA. Meanwhile, the Polar Easterlies are cold, but weak winds near the north and south poles that affect the USA. They cool around between 50 and 60 degrees latitude," said the guide. "Now, please follow me into the computer section of the weather station..."

In the Mountains

When we drove up the mountain, I saw the rain turn to sleet, the sleet turn to hail, and the hail turn to snow.

"Why is that happening?" I asked."As we go up the mountain, it gets colder, and the rain

that is falling from the clouds gets colder too and freezes into different forms of precipitation, depending on the temperature, the pressure, and the height we go," said my mother, who was driving.

Air Pressure

"Along with that, the air pressure decreases the higher we go, because there is less of the atmosphere weighing down on the Earth's surface. Air pressure is the amount of force on and around a being from the air. The molecules in the air have mass, so they push on things, just like solid matter does. Also, dew point is the temperature that water vapor condenses at. When the air pressure increases, the dew point increases. So, at the moment, we have a very low dew point.

Types of clouds After tons of fun in the mountains, the family began their

trek once again. When looking out the window, Joey saw clouds in a variety of shapes and colors. He remembered from school that the fluffy ones that looked like cotton balls and were a light grayish color were cumulus clouds, that usually reside at about 2 km above the surface. The bright white clouds are cirrus clouds, that are made up of ice crystals and are at about 6 km. Along with these, there are stratus clouds that are flat and look like a blanket. They are usually about 2 km up.

Ocean CurrentsJoey and his family eventually reached their favorite spot in their

vacation: a huge beach on the California coast. Joey got out of the car and bolted off for the beach. He wanted to make a sandcastle, destroy it, and rebuild it again. He built his sandcastle and then decided to go for a swim. The water was freezing cold when he got in, but got warmer at times. The water also started pulling him out further than his parents would've let him go. When he got out of the water, he asked his Mom why the water was like that. His Mom said it was because of ocean currents. The currents circulate constantly, and the currents are like vast rivers within the ocean, flowing from one place to another. These currents are caused by differences in temperature and salinity and, also, by wind. Currents are responsible for a vast amount of movement of the water found in the Earth’s oceans. So, the currents bring the warm air in and the take the cold water out, but come back with the cold water and take the warm water out.

HurricanesAfter coming in from a swim, Joey laid on the sand,

enjoying summer's radiating heat. Yet, the water was cold. A sudden thought hit him as some dark, ominous clouds rolled toward him.

"Daddy! Daddy! Is that a hurricane?""I don't think so. The water is too cold for a hurricane,

and the news didn't say anything about one coming. Hurricanes are low pressure areas that spin counterclockwise. As the air rises, it cools, forming clouds and precipitation. They can cause a lot of destruction and chaos."

In conclusion...

Joey had enjoyed his vacation and learned a lot about weather. He looked forward to the rest of the summer, when he could reminisce about the knowledge that he had acquired. Hopefully, he would forget it all before school started again though. He couldn't have any amount of smarts when he walked through the immense metal doors of his school again; that would just be horrible!

Fin