2 Weather

Weather

Rain or shine. The weather can be sunny, rainy, windy or snowy. Every kind of weather is happening somewhere in the world right now. This is a snowstorm in New York, USA.

What is weather? The weather is caused by three main things: heat, water and air. The Sun gives out heat which warms the Earth. Water makes clouds and rain. It also makes fog, hail and snow. Air is always moving around. This is what makes the wind blow.

The Earth is wrapped in a thick blanket of air called the atmosphere. This is where weather happens. From space, the atmosphere looks like a hazy blue ring around the Earth. The white swirls are clouds.

Water on the move. Water is always moving between the sea, the air and the land. This is called the water cycle. The Sun warms the water in the sea and turns it into an invisible gas. The gas rises and turns into tiny droplets of water, making clouds.

The tiny droplets bump into each other and join together to make bigger drops. When the drops of water become heavy enough they fall as rain. Rivers carry the rainwater back to the sea. The water cycle begins again. The rain that falls on you may have fallen on a dinosaur millions of years ago.