My brother needs a little help with his homework. Anyone know anything about weather?

Question

I would appreciate it if you could help out with my brother's fifth grade science questions about weather. I'm in eighth grade and can't seem to help him. XD

1. What are two major weather factors that determine climate?

2. What kind of climate would you expect to find in areas between the equator and poles?

3. What are the effects of a rain shadow on a mountain range?

4. Does wind speed change as a weather front moves into an area? If so, how?

Sam has a wind vane on top of his house. This afternoon he noticed that the wind, which had been blowing from the west, changed direction and started blowing from the north. Sam went inside and looked at his barometer. He noticed that the pressure was rising.

5. What weather predictions can Sam make?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

(1) Temperature and humidity

(2) In the equatorial regions,the air is always hot and moist.High temperature and humidity prevails throughout the year.Rainfall is heavy for all but one or two months.

Close to the poles,the air is cold and dry.Winters are cold and summer is slightly warmer.Precipitation takes the form of snow.

A weather condition in between these two(weather conditions) prevails over the places in between latitudes.

(3)Rain shadow region is the leeward side of a mountain where prevailing winds are forced to rise and cool on the windward side and shed all its moisture as rain.As a result the leeward side will not have rain during most part of the year.Moreover the leeward side will experience  clear air turbulence which is dangerous to aircrafts flying over the mountain.

(4)When a cold front approaches,a wind shift of 45 to 180 degrees is possible and during a warm front,a wind shift of 45 degrees possible.

Wind will veer(turn clockwise) when warm advection takes place and back(turn anti-clockwise) when cold advection takes place.

As wind directions change, wind speed also will change.

(5) A low pressure is moving from northwest to southeast.

Answer 2

1.latitude and longitude

2. Tropical and Temperate

3. topographic effect

4. Not sure

5. That it was going to rain

Answer 3

1. Latitude/Longitude and air masses

2. Tropical

3. topographic effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_shadow

4. Yes. As the difference in temp increases, wind becomes faster

5. a storm/front is coming from the north.