Find the tipping bucket rain gauge. What

does the Bureau of Meteorology use these to

measure? A. How much _ _ _ _ falls in an h _ _ r

Look through the cutaway

side. Does this remind you

of a piece of playground

equipment?

(Hint: it needs weight at both ends

to keep working!)

The rain gauge has two buckets with each holding

0.2mm of rain, so that as one bucket empties, the

other is ready to be filled. This means it keeps

tipping from side to side and doesn’t stop as long

as it’s raining. 11

The Sun The Sun is the powerhouse behind the weather on every planet in our Solar System. Heat energy from the

Sun causes air to heat

and rise. As air cools, it

falls. The never-ending

movement of air called

w _ _ _ causes the

weather we experience

every day across the

entire planet. Did you know? Some winds even have names! Zephyr,

mistral and zonda are just a few. Can you find any others?

Back at school

Look up the Beaufort scale on the web. What does it

measure and why is it useful?

5

Now it’s your turn Use our weather instruments carefully to find

and record data for today’s date

_ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _

1. The temperature now is: ____________ °C 2. Is the temperature now the same as on the

signal mast? Your teacher can help.

______________________________________

______________________________________ 3. Barometers measure the

atmospheric pressure (see

page 7). The atmospheric

pressure today is:

______________hPa

4. The amount of precipitation, or rain, can

be measured in many different types of rain

gauge. How much rain has fallen?

______________mm.

12

Old and new Old: If you visit the nearby

Bureau of Meteorology’s

instrument enclosure you

will see where Sydney’s

weather measurements

have been taken since

1858.

Why do you think there

are there several of each

type of rain gauge? What is measured at this site?

Wind is no longer measured here. Can you think of a good site to measure wind?

18

5. A wind vane tells us which direction the wind is blowing from. Today the wind is blowing from the _______________

6. Look at the flags on the flag staff. Which direction are they blowing?

______________

7777. Do the flags point in the same direction or opposite direction to the wind vane? Discuss back at school.

__________________________________________

6. An anemometer measures wind speed.

The current average wind speed is?

______________ km/hr.

13

New: Look at the block with red lights on top

of the Westpac building. It is a barometer

which measures atmospheric pressure. When

lit, are there a lot of lights (HIGH pressure) or

just a few (LOW pressure)? ___________________________________________

Did you know? As a very loose rule, high pressure

often brings stable weather and low pressure

brings unsettled weather. Are the lights moving up or down? Circle your observation. • Rising pressure so it will

probably be clear later • Falling pressure so it will

probably cloudy later Back at school the next day. Was there a change in the weather and did the barometer “predict’ it correctly? Yes / No

19

In the exhibition Find the exhibit called ‘What was the weather?’

It will tell you what the weather was like on the

day you were born!

When were you born?

_ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _

Record the data below

Maximum temperature: °C

Minimum temperature: °C

Rainfall: mm Did you know? Sydney’s hottest recorded day

was 45.8°C on 18 January 2013. The hottest

day ever recorded in the world was in Death

Valley, USA, in 1913 at a scorching 56.7°C. Back at school

• Can you find who had the hottest birthday,

the coldest and the wettest.

• Perhaps your teacher can help make a pie

graph of wet and dry birthdays.

10

Indigenous weather symbols and words

Some Indigenous groups use symbols in art to describe the

weather.

The Bureau of Meteorology also uses symbols to describe the weather.

Eora Eora Eora Eora wwwweather wordseather wordseather wordseather words The Gadigal people of the Eora nation are the traditional custodians of the land upon which Sydney Observatory was built in 1858.

EoraEoraEoraEora EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglish

Buruwa Cloud

Mungi Lightning

Murungal Thunder

Guruwilang Hail

Bamal Earth

Barabung Dew

Guruny Fog

Walan yilaba Heavy rain

Bidiluray Fine weather

4

Australia’s first weather map

This is Australia’s first European weather map. It was

created by Henry Chamberlain Russell, the third

government astronomer at Sydney Observatory.

Can you find an image of this weather map in the

exhibition?

What year was this weather map made? _ _ _ _ Back at SchoolBack at SchoolBack at SchoolBack at School go to www.bom.gov.au and find a

modern weather map for Sydney called a Mean Sea

Level Pressure Map. Have the maps changed much?

9

Indigenous weather The Indigenous people of Australia have evolved

cultures that incorporate the environment into

their life including climate change, plant life,

animal behaviour and movement of the stars.

For more than 40 000 years they have had to

cope with the extremes of weather including

thousands of years of winter during the last ice

age, droughts, fire and flood.

Each Indigenous group have their own unique

story of the weather based on observation and

an unrivalled connection with nature.

Indigenous Nations of Australia

Courtesy NSW Department of Education and Training

3

7. The relative humidity is a measure of how much water vapour is in the air. 100% humidity occurs in fog. When the humidity is low we can feel small electric shocks that build up on some carpets and clothes. This can be a problem for computers and other electronic devices.

a. Dry bulb temp °C b. Wet bulb temp ________ °C c. Now subtract the wet temp (b) from the

dry temp (a) °C

d. With the teacher’s help, use the table

supplied to find the relative humidity.

_____________ %

14

Weather spelling list

weather, meteorology, bureau, isobar, barometer,

rain, storm, cyclone, gauge, observatory, humidity,

drought, wind, climate, temperature, atmosphere,

hail, front, trough, Beaufort, zephyr, hygrometer.

Back at school Watch the weather report on the news

tonight. Look for a weather map. Draw some

of the main features on your own map

below.

Date:

20

Dry Bulb Wet Bulb

Whirling hygrometer

8888. . . . The UV index tells us how much Ultra-Violet

radiation is coming from the Sun. This can tell us

how quickly we can get

sunburnt.

We measure this using

a UV index meter.

Write the current UV

index in the blank

space on the meter.

The UV index is a scale used to tell people how to protect

themselves from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.

0000––––2222 Low. No protection required.

3333––––5555 Moderate

6666––––7777 High

8888––––10101010 Very high. Avoid the midday sun.

11+11+11+11+ Extreme. Stay in the shade where possible.

Remember to always Slip, slop, slap, seek and slide!

15

Weather poem Hear is a poem about weather, it is a verse

from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

The wide brown land for me!

Can you write your own weather poem?

21

The weather map Below is a weather map of NSW. The numbers

represent the atmospheric pressure.

ActivityActivityActivityActivity - Join values of equal pressure with a

smooth line, called an I _ _ _ _ _I _ _ _ _ _I _ _ _ _ _I _ _ _ _ _, to make a

closed loop called a CELL. CELL. CELL. CELL. If the pressure in the

centre of the cell is lower than the outside it is a

LOW LOW LOW LOW pressure cell. If the centre of the cell has a

higher pressure than the outside is it a HIGH HIGH HIGH HIGH

pressure cell.

Remember the air in a ‘low’ is falling and the air in a ‘high’ is rising.

8

What is the difference between weather and climate?

The Earth is surrounded by a thin layer of gas

called the atmosphereatmosphereatmosphereatmosphere.

WWWWeathereathereathereather is the local condition of the atmosphere

at a given time.

ClimateClimateClimateClimate is the long-term average of conditions

that exist in the atmosphere.

2

What type of

cell is this?

High or Low

pressure?

Atmospheric pressure Atmospheric pressure is a measure of how strongly the air is pushing down on the ground.

Air that has been heated by the Sun will rise, spread out and then cool and fall back to the ground.

Where the air is r _ r _ r _ r _ ssss _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ g g g g it is an area of ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ pressure; where the air is f _ _ _ _ _ _f _ _ _ _ _ _f _ _ _ _ _ _f _ _ _ _ _ _

it is an area of _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ pressure.

You may not have heard of air pressure before but you definitely will have felt it. Travelling in a car, a lift or a plane as they get higher you may sometimes feel your ears ‘pop’. This is because the air pressure as you go up is lower and your ears try to adjust to the change.

7

Why study weather at

Sydney Observatory? European meteorology, or the study of weather,

began in Australia on 14 September 1788 when

the First Fleet’s Lieutenant Dawes set up an

observatory to look for a comet and to start

regular weather observations.

Sydney Observatory, built in 1858, became the

centre of weather studies until the Bureau of

Meteorology began work in 1908. In 1922 the

bureau moved to their purpose-built office

nearby, as seen on the cover. Reconstructed view of

William Dawes’ observatory

by R Bashford Web research

On which ship did Dawes come to Australia? (Hint: it shares its name with the brightest star in the night sky.)

1

Clouds Clouds are made of tiny drops of water and ice

that are so small they are carried by the wind.

What does the sky look like now? overcast/ cloudy mostly sunny sunny

rainy

16

Challenge You saw some examples in the Observatory

today of ways to collect data about the

weather.

Can you design you own equipment to

measure the weather? Let your imagination

go wild!

22

Calibration You might have

noticed that

sometimes you got a

different reading to

your classmates.

Two of the same

instruments can

sometimes give us

two different readings. This means that

instruments require an accuracy check or

calibrationcalibrationcalibrationcalibration....

Calibrate Your ThermometerCalibrate Your ThermometerCalibrate Your ThermometerCalibrate Your Thermometer

My temperature reading: °C Actual temperature as measured by the

Observatory’s digital thermometer: °C This means I need to add/subtract °C

from my readings.

E.g. If your thermometer reads a temperature

two degrees higher than the actual temperature, you must subtract two from all of your readings in order to get the accurate result.

17

Sydney Observatory Sydney Observatory is open every day

(except Christmas Day and Good Friday)

between 10 am and 5 pm. Admission to the

heritage building and grounds is free. Telescope, 3-D Space Theatre and

planetarium tours every day and night except

Sunday nights. Please visit our website. Bookings are essential for night tours.

Admission fees and Powerhouse Member

discounts apply. Prepayment is required for all booked activities. Bookings (02) 9921 3485

www.sydneyobservatory.com.au

Measuring the weather is supported by

(Optional viewing of the Sun)

We can use a telescope fitted with a solar filter to look at the sun. Sometimes we can see sunspots and huge ‘flame-like’ structures called prominences and flares. Look through the telescope and carefully record what you see. If it’s too cloudy visit www.spaceweather.com to see an image of the Sun from a space telescope.

Date:____________

6

Measuring the

weather

Name:

Don’t forget to bring your book to Sydney Observatory

Earth Sample sketch

Sun