7 Storms and Hurricanes

Storms and Hurricanes

Stormy skies. During a storm, there are thick, dark clouds in the sky, very strong winds and often heavy rain or snow. Sometimes, there is thunder and lightning, too. This is a big storm in Nebraska, U.S.A.

Different weather. Storms and other kinds of weather happen all over the world. Weather is formed in the air that surrounds the Earth. You can see weather from space. This picture shows white, swirling clouds. The gaps between the clouds are clear skies.

The type of weather depends on how hot, cold, dry or damp the air is. Where the air is hot and dry, the weather is sunny and there's no rain. Cold and damp air makes cloudy, foggy, rainy or snowy weather. Many storms happen where the air becomes hot and damp. Other planets such as Jupiter have storms, too.

Cloudy skies. Storm clouds form when the air is warm and damp. Damp air is filled with very tiny water droplets, so small you can't see them. 1. The Sun shines and heats up the air making the water droplets rise. High above the ground, the droplets cool and join together to make clouds. Inside the cloud, the droplets bump together and join to form bigger droplets. Soon, the droplets of water are so big and heavy that they fall as rain.

In some parts of the world, so much rain falls at once, the ground floods. This is Calcutta in India. It rains like this for around two months every year. In some parts of Hawaii, U.S.A., it rains almost every day.