Monitor weather using homemade tools

It’s hard to believe that many kids have already started school. I’m sure it was difficult to be sitting in the classroom those first few days when the sun was shining and temperatures in many areas were well into the 90s.

Average highs this time of year are right around 80 degrees, with overnight lows in the 50s, so the temperatures of the past couple of days have been well above normal. As a whole, however, temperatures for August have only come in slightly above normal.

Balancing these warm, dry days, have been some stormier days which brought much needed rainfall to the area. While the Spokane airport had only registered .72 inches of rain through Aug. 27, that is still above the normal .68 inches.

Coeur d’Alene has registered 1.35 inches for the month, above the normal of .96 inches. Most of the rain has come from shower and thunderstorm activity, as opposed to a steady light rain which we just don’t see in the summer. Such storms can dump an inch of rain on one neighborhood, while leaving another thirsting for more. Rainfall amounts at your specific location may vary considerably from what is recorded at the official weather stations in the area.

With that in mind, I would like to encourage anyone with an interest in weather to invest in some simple weather instruments such as a rain gauge and thermometer. If you have school-age children, such tools can provide many learning opportunities during the school year that may spark a child’s interest in science.

With a few inexpensive thermometers, kids (and parents) can see how different surfaces affect the temperature of the air above it. Mount thermometers over grass, pavement, sand, a white piece of cardboard, and a dark colored object and note how the temperature varies. Though accurate air temperature measurements require a shaded and ventilated thermometer, the point of this experiment would be to note the differences in the readings rather than their absolute values.

A simple search on the Internet yields many sites that will show you how to make your own working barometer, with common materials such as a balloon, a straw and a jar. Making an anemometer or a rain gauge is also a fun and educational project.

For an even simpler activity, just do some cloud watching, and then try to identify the types of clouds you see. There are so many types of clouds, many with complicated Latin names, that I don’t even know them all. But there are books with illustrations that make it fun to try to find “your” cloud.

If you have an Internet connection, you can find a “cloud atlas” online which includes the Latin name of the cloud, its translation, and some beautiful color photo examples. Go to this Penn State University site http://www.ems.psu.edu/ ~lno/Meteo437/atlas.html.