Charting the weather by season

Science · Earth's Systems · ages 8-9

Name ______________________ Date ____________

Rain and snow both count as precipitation.
Circle one: True False
Zara has written down the weather in her town every day for four weeks of spring. What should she do next?
- Put all the days together and look for the pattern
- Throw out the rainy days and keep only the sunny ones
- Stop, because one week of notes is plenty
Look at the bar chart of average temperatures. Which season is the warmest?
- Winter
- Fall
- Summer
Look at the bar chart of average temperatures. Which season is the coldest?
- Winter
- Spring
- Summer
Using the seasonal temperature graph, which list puts the seasons in order from coldest to warmest?
- Winter, spring, fall, summer
- Summer, spring, fall, winter
- Winter, fall, spring, summer
Priya's spring table shows 14 rainy days out of 28 days. Which sentence describes that spring best?
- Rain was common that spring, but many days were dry
- It rained every single day that spring
- That spring was always dry and sunny
Look at the bar chart of rainy days each week in fall. How many rainy days were there in Week 2?
Answer: ______________
Look at the bar chart of rainy days in each season. Which season had the most rainy days?
- Spring
- Winter
- Summer
Ben's charts show that winter averaged 4 rainy days a week and summer averaged 1. His sister says, 'Then it never rains in summer.' What should Ben tell her?
- Summer still gets some rainy days, just fewer than winter
- You are right, summer never gets rain
- Winter is really the dry season
Using the seasonal temperature graph, how many degrees warmer is summer than winter?
Answer: ______________

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Charting the weather by season W1-mt_NYsz6QgaaE-s1

True · Precipitation is water that falls from the sky. Rain is liquid water and snow is frozen water, so both count.
Put all the days together and look for the pattern · After weeks of daily notes, the next step is to look at all the days together to find what spring is usually like.
Summer · Summer's bar is the tallest, at 28°C.
Winter · Winter's bar is the shortest, at 2°C.
Winter, fall, spring, summer · From coldest to warmest: winter 2°C, fall 14°C, spring 15°C, summer 28°C.
Rain was common that spring, but many days were dry · About half of the days had rain. That makes rain common, but not an everyday thing.
4 · The bar for Week 2 reaches 4 rainy days.
Winter · Winter's bar is the tallest, at 12 rainy days.
Summer still gets some rainy days, just fewer than winter · An average of 1 rainy day a week is less rain than winter, but it is not zero. What is typical is not the same as always or never.
26 · Summer averages 28°C and winter averages 2°C. 28 minus 2 is 26 degrees.