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Weather
- Wicked Winds! - Episode 107
  
Weather Folklore
Mari
and Lindsey wondered how people used to predict the weather before
there were satellites, radar and computers. They knew of several
folktales about the weather and were curious if they were true.
Question
Can you use folklore to predict the weather?
Investigation
Mari and Lindsey explored several folktales about weather. They
were: Clouds at night predict tomorrow’s weather; hair won’t
hold its curl if rain is coming; bees stay near the hive when
storms approach; cows lie down when it’s going to rain; Grandma’s
toe hurts when bad weather is coming. They also built a homemade
barometer to see if they could detect weather changes that way.
Results
The girls counted the
number of times each predictor was correct about the next day’s
weather, out of nine days.
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clouds
at night
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grandma's
toe
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barometer
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bees
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hair
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cows
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7
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3
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5
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6
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4
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3
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Conclusion
Mari
and Lindsey found that over nine days, only two of their folktales
were reliable more than half the time. They wondered if their
results would come out differently if they observed the weather
for several weeks.
Tornado
Model
 Fascinated
by tornados, Sullivan and Alexa wanted to learn how
tornados form in nature.
Question
Is
a sidewind or an updraft wind more important in forming
a tornado?
Investigation
Sullivan and Alexa built their own tornado model from a large
cardboard box, two household fans and a humidifier. They tried
all combinations of settings to see how to make the strongest
tornado vortex.
Conclusion
They found that a high side wind is important in making a destructive
tornado, but it is not enough all by itself. The side wind becomes
a destructive tornado only when there is also a strong updraft.
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