Weather and Climate

Today we discussed the difference between weather and climate and investigated different climate zones in Australia and globally. We used climatology information available on WeatherZone to find out about the average temperatures and rainfall in different parts of Australia. We used this graph to identify the climate type.

The children made this model to show how rain falls over mountains making a rain-shadow or desert on one side. This can be clearly seen to the west of the great dividing range in Australia.

Heavy rain clouds cannot rise over the mountains and dump all their rain on the east side.

This afternoon we also tried making a cloud in a bottle, making a barometer and investigating the greenhouse effect. In the picture below the children are estimating the cloud cover by looking at the sky in a mirror divided into eights.