Camping Trip By: Sabrina & Conner

Jim decides to take his family camping near the ocean. On their way they encounter heavy rain. Jim as a meteorologist in training tells them, "The drop in barometric pressure causes rain that you see here."

About half way into their drive they encounter a patch of hail and as jim glances down he notices that the temperature has dropped to the point where it will start hailing and but warm enough not to snow.

Not too long after it starts to hail they encounter a snow which was surprising for the time of year. Bewildered Jim was unable to comment on why this was happening.

When they arrive arrive to the campsite they start to put up their tent. Realising that the snow has now stopped they were able to put up the tent. Just as they finished it started to sleet.

Later that night they sat around a fire they built, the precipitation long gone, when his daughter kelly asked, "Where does the smoke go from the fire," Jim waited a moment and then replied, "It goes up and up and helps in contributing to the formation of clouds." Tried they got ready to go to sleep.

In the morning Jim and kids woke up to the sight of a small tornado ravaging through the campsite. It must have been a result of the lingering low pressure system combined with the

The next day they went hiking. When they reached the top of the mountain they found a meteorologist named Todd. This was a surprise for Jim because he was studying to be a meteorologist. Todd said he was up there doing research and collecting data about weather patterns

"What have you seen so far?" asked Jim.Todd answered,"about a week ago I saw a hurricane pass over that mountain in the distance," He pointed. "The air over that mountain has very low pressure which causes a lot of tropical storms and precipitation." Todd concluded.

Jim was fascinated by all this information, "Why did you choose this location to research?" Jim asked."Back at my lab we use doppler radar and other techniques to observe wind and ocean patterns, This location has had a lot of strange activity and it drew my attention so I wanted a closer look."

"This is one of the maps I look at" Said Todd.

"What instruments do you use?" asked Jim."Well, to measure air pressure I use a barometer and for humidity I us Hydrometers. Hydrometers measure temperature and humidity using degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit." answered Todd."What about for wind and temperature." asked Jim."For wind I use Anemometers, they measure the direction and speed of wind in miles per hour. To measure temperature I use thermometers, they measure the high and low temperatures outside in degrees celsius and degrees fahrenheit.' Said Todd.

The next day when they woke up they spotted water droplets on the grass."Daddy why is there water droplets if it didn't rain last night?" asked Sarah."The dew point is the temperature when dew or condensation forms. In moist air, the dew point is higher, so the dew point is also a rough estimation of humidity levels. Cold air doesn't hold as much water vapor as warm air, so when the temperature falls at night, the water vapor turns to dew." Jim informed.

While searching for sticks on the ground Sarah stumbles on a rock and falls to the ground. "Thats weird, the air feels cooler down here." said Sarah confused." That is cause by convection, Sarah. You see, the suns rays heat up air molecules as the rays hit earth. Those air molecules then start to cool down and sink as they get denser. The cooled down molecules start to get heated up again by the warm ground and start to rise. This process repeats itself forming a circular current by the air molecules." answered Jim.

That night at the campfire the kids wanted to know about their dads work, so Jim pulled out his journal and read them a page."Isobars and isotherms are lines on weather maps which represent patterns of pressure and temperature, respectively. They show how temperature and pressure are changing over space and help describe the large-scale weather patterns across a region in the map." read Jim.

The next day jim thought it would be a good idea to go fishing because the weather was nice cause of a warm front coming in. Warm fronts that bring warm air are referred to as warm fronts. As this warm air approaches, it is lifted upward above the cooler air. As the air in the warm air mass rises it expands, causing it to cool down. As it cools, water vapor can condense, creating precipitation. They had to hurry and go fishing fast before it started to precipitate.

That night after catching a bucket of fish Jim suggested they sit by the fire and cook them to stay warm because a cold front was coming in."what a cold front?" asked Sarah."A front bringing in a cold air mass, it is one of the 4 different types of fronts." replied Jim."What are the other ones besides warm and cold fronts?" asked Sarah."Well, there is also stationary fronts, When two air masses come together but neither displaces the other, and there is an occluded front, an occluded front is a combination of two fronts that are made when a cold front reaches a warm front and overtakes it." added Jim.