40 Weather Trivia Questions for Kids

1. Which clouds usually look like separate fluffy heaps with fairly flat bottoms?

2. Which high clouds look thin and wispy, like brushstrokes?

3. Which cloud name fits a low, flat gray blanket across the sky?

4. Which thick, layered cloud often brings steady rain over a wide area?

5. In cloud names such as altocumulus, what does alto tell us?

6. What shape gives lenticular clouds their name?

7. What do mammatus features look like underneath a cloud?

8. What is very fine rain made of tiny, closely spaced drops called?

9. What is rain called when it evaporates below a cloud before reaching the ground?

10. A large falling raindrop is usually flattened at the bottom rather than shaped like what?

11. What rising current of air helps hold growing hailstones inside a cloud?

12. If you cut through a hailstone, what pattern can appear inside?

13. What single weather word includes rain, snow and hail falling from clouds?

14. A forecast says sunshine and showers. What does showers suggest?

15. Which instrument collects rainfall so its amount can be measured?

16. What does the arrow of a weather vane help show?

17. What is the small instrument package carried by a weather balloon called?

18. What does weather radar send out to locate rain?

19. What gives forecasters pictures of cloud patterns from high above Earth?

20. On a weather map, what do lines called isobars connect?

21. Closely packed isobars on a weather chart usually suggest what?

22. An easterly wind comes from which direction?

23. Pressure differences push air from which kind of area toward a lower-pressure area?

24. During a typical sunny afternoon, which way does a sea breeze blow near the ground?

25. What do we call a brief increase in wind speed?

26. What is a jet stream?

27. The often calm region called the doldrums lies near which part of Earth?

28. What does the Beaufort scale describe?

29. To see a rainbow made by sunlight, where should the Sun usually be?

30. What happens to the color order in the outer bow of a double rainbow?

31. From a high enough viewpoint, what complete shape can a rainbow make?

32. What color is a fogbow mostly, compared with a brightly colored rainbow?

33. What is the relatively calm center of a well-developed hurricane called?

34. What kind of ocean water helps supply energy to a hurricane?

35. Where are a hurricane's strongest surface winds generally found?

36. What is a rotating column of air that extends from a cloud to a water surface called?

37. What is a rotating funnel hanging from a cloud called if its circulation has not reached the surface?

38. What kind of event is lightning?

39. Where can lightning happen besides between a cloud and the ground?

40. Why do you usually see a lightning flash before hearing its thunder?