Are you interested in tracking the weather in your region? You can observe and record the weather from indoors, even from a wheelchair or from bed during an illness. Weather observation is fun and educational and a great hobby.
An outdoor thermometer to take a daily reading of the outdoor temperature is great, but you can manage by taking a reading from television weather report or a daily newspaper. A rain gauge can tell you the amount of rainfall. A wind sock or weather vane make known the direction and speed of the wind. Clouds you can see from your window can let you in on the type of weather ahead.
Day by Day Weather
On each day’s space draw a small cloud of the type you see outside and make a small symbol for different weather happenings:
- A cloud shape with rain drops under it
- A snowflake
- A sun to mark a sunny day
- A dark cloud with lightning bolt for thunderstorms
- A rainbow for rainy spell ending
- A cloud with sun peeking from behind it for partly cloudy
Think of other symbols for weather that you have seen on forecasts on television or on newspapers.
Use these to show on your chart what each day was like. Was it very cold? Was it windy? Was it sunny and clear with no wind at all? Draw your symbols or write in your journal page the date, the high and low temperature, the barometric pressure, the amount of rainfall, and other facts you can determine for each day.
Your chart can be embellished with artwork, stickers, colors that mean different things like:
- Blue – very cold
- Green – cool
- Yellow – warm
- Red – hot
Include a key on the chart so that people who study your chart will know what your colors mean.
Poster Board Chart
To make a weather chart on poster board, cut your poster board to the size you want. Use a ruler to draw lines and line out the weeks of a couple of months and the days of each week. Make each day’s box large enough to fill with the information you hope to record about each day’s weather
Decorate Your Chart
Decorate a border around the poster with clouds, suns, moons, lightning bolts, rainbows, or tornado shapes. Another idea would be to cut pictures of weather from magazines or newspapers to place in each corner or across the bottom of the chart. Write: “How’s the Weather?” across the top of the chart.
Decorate with pictures of leaves or items that show the season of your chart.
- Flowers for spring
- Green leaves for summer
- Pumpkins for fall
- Snow man for summer.
Use something that symbolizes each season to you.
Hang your chart in a convenient place near a window, where it is certain to lead to discussions of the weather among your friends and relatives. If you learn some weather proverbs or sayings, write these on your poster also.
Studying weather may turn out to be a lifelong interest to you.
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