Collecting Weather Data

Collecting Weather Data

Collecting Weather Data
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	9.24

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		forecasters, atmospheric, crossing, man-made, orbit, atmosphere, microwave, accuracy, better, momentum, plural, singular, medium, identify, valuable, satellite
	content words:		United States, National Weather Service, But Earth, Weather Service

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Collecting Weather Data
By Cindy Grigg

¹     The conditions of the atmosphere at a certain time and place are called weather. Is weather important in your life? It affects what clothes you wear and your choices of activities. It may even affect your mood. The weather of an area is due to four factors. They are heat energy, air pressure, winds, and moisture. Changes in these factors determine the kind of weather an area will have. We base decisions on what to wear, where to go, and what to do on the weather forecast.

²     To make weather maps and forecast weather, weather data must be collected from Earth's surface and atmosphere. Scientists analyze the weather maps and the data in them to forecast the weather. These data are collected in many ways. Data comes from a Latin word meaning "something given." It is the plural form of the word "datum." Today, we often use it as both singular (meaning information) and plural (meaning facts or pieces of information).

³     Data are collected at weather stations on the ground. More than four hundred national weather stations in the United States measure weather conditions many times every day. Each station measures weather conditions such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, amount of cloud cover, and precipitation. The National Weather Service uses the data to make weather maps.

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
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