By AccuWeather senior meteorologist
AccuWeather School's out for the summer, but the fun of learning about the weather isn't over. While other camps may have been canceled, AccuWeather has many new and exciting experiments and projects planned for the summer that parents and our virtual campers can watch and do from home. So, pack your activity bags, and let’s go to AccuWeather Summer Camp!
🔥 August 21 - Campfire Tales: Best time to hit home runs!
We all know that summer is a better time to play baseball than the wintertime, but did you know that even a change in the weather during the summer can raise or lower your chances of hitting a home run? Let’s find out more from AccuWeather Meteorologist Jake Sojda and his doggie friend:
🏃🏽♀️ August 21 - Race Time! Baseball in heat, cold and snow
Baseball is back, so let’s look back at some of the most memorable baseball games played when it was snowing, freezing cold or sizzling hot:
🎭 August 21 - Story Time: Vicious hailstorm closes Colorado State Fair
We heard earlier how weather has halted baseball games. Now, let’s hear a story of when a vicious hailstorm forced something as large as the Colorado State Fair to shut down – one person was even knocked unconscious – by listening to the AccuWeather This Date in Weather History podcast:
🔎 August 20 - Weather Detectives! Case of the disappearing candy
If you think that soggy candy is the worst, what about candy that disappears before your eyes?? That’s exactly what will happen if you drop sugar-coated candy into hot water:
The difference between hot and cold water not only affects how fast your favorite candy will disappear – warmer water also provides more fuel for hurricanes and other weather phenomena like lake-effect snow.
However, when it comes to which is boss between the two (warmer water/air and colder water/air), cold will always win:
🪐 August 20 - Space Exploration: Is there a South Star like the North Star?
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you probably have heard of the North Star – the star that can guide you north if you don’t have your phone or compass handy. What about our friends south of the equator, is there a South Star? The answer is no, but there are stars that can lead you home if you get lost in South America, Africa and Australia:
While the Southern Cross is most common in the Southern Hemisphere, it can be seen in some places north of the equator – the key is whether you see the M- or W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. If you see Cassiopeia, don’t bother looking for the Southern Cross.
For all but the southernmost parts of the United States, Cassiopeia never sets and the Southern Cross never rises – that’s what our friends at EarthSky.org said.
⛅️ August 19 - Cloud scavenger hunt: Why is fog more common in valleys?
With autumn just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, you are sure to notice more foggy nights and mornings. Have you ever noticed that valleys are usually one of the foggiest places? You aren’t imagining things. There’s a reason behind that:
Check out the satellite on some fall mornings, you will likely see fog snake its way through river valleys – it’s a great tool for any of your geography classes! Fog can lead to pretty weather photos, but it can be dangerous to drivers and pilots by making it hard to see the road or runway ahead.
Here’s another tidbit to get you ready for any history classes you have this fall – did you know that fog almost got in the way of Paul Revere warning that the British were coming during the Revolutionary War?
🔎 August 19 - Weather Detectives! Boiling water with ice?
Wait a minute? Water turns into ice when it freezes and vapor when it boils, so how can you get water to boil with ice? It’s not magic, but rather, it’s science that allows this to happen:
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls started this experiment by boiling water in a glass bottle (kids, make sure you get an adult to help with this). Once the water in the bottle was boiling, Jason removed it from the heat, waited 10 seconds and fastened a lid on top. He then turned the water bottle upside down in another jar to hold it and put the ice on top.
As the air cooled, the water started to boil again – how did that happen?
First you have to know that at the boiling point of water (212 degrees Fahrenheit/100 degrees Celsius), tiny bubbles of water vapor rise to the surface.
The key is that placing the ice on top causes the air pressure inside the bottle to lower. When the air pressure is lower, the tiny bubbles in the hot water have an easier time coming up to the surface – and actually, you can get boiling water at a temperature lower than 212 F.
🔥 August 18 - Campfire Tales: “It’s hot, but it’s a dry heat!”
Think of the weather in Phoenix, Arizona, and then Miami, Florida – what is the main difference? You need shorts in both places in the summer, right?
If you ask an adult for help on this question, you may hear the answer, “Phoenix is hot, but it’s a dry heat.” But, what does that mean? Let’s find out:
The main point from the video is that no matter whether it is humid out or you are dealing with a dry heat, you need to make sure to drink lots of water to replace the sweat your body is pushing out to try and keep you cool – that’s the real reason for sweat; it’s not to make you smell!
🥤 August 18 - Water break: How much should you drink a day? Silly cat has answers!
Jett the cat is here to make you laugh as we learn about how much water you should drink everyday:
If you struggled to pay attention to what Krissy was saying since Jett was being silly – wasn’t it funny how he tried to “bite” the water?! – here’s a recap of how much water kids should drink each day:
Toddlers: 2 to 4 cups
4-8 years old: About 5 cups
9-13 years old: 7 to 8 cups
14 years and up: 8 to 11 cups
That is just a general guide from WedMD; parents are always encouraged to consult with their doctors. When kids and teens are playing sports or running around outdoors, they will need to drink more water (or other drinks) – the more you sweat to keep cool, the more water you have to put back into your body.
Adults – don’t forget to also make sure you are drinking enough water each day as well!
Eating fruits and vegetables that are mostly made of water, such as cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and watermelon, is another great way all of us can stay hydrated. That includes Jett since this silly cat loves to snack on lettuce and spinach!
🍳 August 18 - Cooking Activity: Chocolate chip cookies baked in a hot car!
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Krissy Pydynowski is once again cooking things in her hot car – this time, she successfully made chocolate chip cookies on one hot, sunny day!
More than showing you another way to bake these tasty treats if you don’t have an oven, this activity is a good reminder of how dangerously hot the inside of cars can become when the windows are up and the sun is shining brightly. The temperature of the cookie sheet got to around 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius)!
Adults should never leave kids or pets in a car with the windows up and no air conditioning on, even for a short period of time. Even in the spring and early fall, cars can become death traps on mostly sunny days.
🎭 August 18 - Story Time: Not one, but three hits by a hurricane
Lightning can hit the same place more than once, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that hurricanes will do the same – that happened back in 1955 when Hurricane Diane was one of three hurricanes to hit North Carolina in the same Atlantic hurricane season.
Let’s learn more about this damaging storm by listening to the AccuWeather This Date in Weather History podcast:
🎭 August 17 - Story Time: One of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the US
More than a half of a century ago, Hurricane Camille slammed into the Mississippi coast as the second most-intense hurricane to strike the United States. Nearly 260 lives were lost and the destruction caused by Camille equates to more than $10 billion in today’s dollars.
Let’s gather around the campfire and hear what was especially unusual about Hurricane Camille by listening to AccuWeather’s This Date in Weather History podcast:
We heard that Camille was one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to strike the mainland of the U.S. Do you know the other three?
The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Michael from 2018.
🏕️ August 14 - Excursion Day: Trees holding on for dear life against erosion
Let’s take a excursion to Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania and see an interesting feature along the lake – cliffs that keep eroding and causing trees to hang on for dear life!
When they can’t hold on any longer as the sandy soil around them erodes, they fall into the lake – leading to what looks like a “tree graveyard” along the lakeshore. Check it out:
Sandy soil doesn’t hold together as well as dirt. Because of that, each time rain pours down, some of the sandy soil of the cliffs (known as bluffs) along Lake Erie is swept down into the lake – that’s called erosion.
You may already know about erosion without realizing it – why don’t you build a sandcastle right up against the water? The waves will wash it away, right? That’s a small example of erosion!
(Pixabay/sebastienross)
🔬 August 14 - Invention Station: Check out this homemade tornado machine
When your community is under a tornado warning, you rush to your basement (or lowest-level of your home) to stay safe. However, in the basement of AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bob Smerbeck is a tornado machine that he built!
This isn’t a simple tornado that you can spin up with a soda bottle (though, that’s a fun at-home activity!). Bob spent three months making this machine – using a hair dryer, pipes, fan and a vaporizer – to look at how tornadoes form.
⚡ August 14 - Shocking Truth: What makes a thunderstorm severe?
Thunder rumbling and lightning flashing through the sky are common in the summer, but what makes a thunderstorm severe and causes your AccuWeather app to buzz with severe thunderstorm warnings? Let’s find out:
To recap – a severe thunderstorm is capable of producing damaging winds, hail the size of quarters or larger and/or a tornado. Even though it’s deadly, lightning doesn’t make a thunderstorm severe. Lightning is what makes a thunderstorm a thunderstorm – without lightning, a thunderstorm is just a rain shower that you can stay outside and play in.
If you are a regular camper of AccuWeather Summer Camp, you know that when you hear thunder, you need to head indoors.
⛅️ August 13 - Cloud scavenger hunt: Shelves in the sky
OK, there aren’t really the types of shelves you may think of in the sky, but shelf clouds do exist and can be scary looking – so scary that some people may quickly think an alien ship is invading their community when they first see a shelf cloud! Let’s find out how these clouds take shape in the sky:
As Krissy said in the video above, shelf clouds form as strong winds rush colder air down and outward from a thunderstorm. If those winds are strong enough, they can knock down trees, power lines and even cause some damage to parts of your house.
You should already be indoors when you hear thunder to avoid being struck by lightning, but shelf clouds are another good reminder from the sky that you shouldn’t be outdoors during a thunderstorm.
(AccuWeather/Brian Mastro)
🐍 August 13 - Reptile Park: Snakes would never win a marathon
You and your furry pets may enjoy sitting out in the sun and soaking up the warmth. Snakes and other reptiles also like to sit out in the sun, but it is for a more important reason – without that warmth, they wouldn’t be able to move around.
Humans, dogs, cats and our other furry friends are warm-blooded, meaning our bodies do the work to keep our temperature in check. Snakes, other reptiles, insects and fish are cold-blooded – if they don’t find ways to warm or cool themselves, their body temperatures would be the same as the air around them.
Not being able to maintain a steady temperature is why the life of most snakes and reptiles is slow-moving, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They can have quick bursts of energy but would never be able to run a marathon away from a predator or to catch its dinner.
The lower the temperature goes, the more sluggish reptiles get. This past winter, it was so chilly in Florida that iguanas were falling out of trees!
🎨 August 13 - Art Class: Make your own thunder stick
You all know that when thunder roars, head indoors. Well, here is one rumble of thunder you don’t have to be scared of – one that you make at home!
As AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls shows below, all you need is a few common items from around your house for this fun weather activity:
🗺️ August 12 - Map Station: Chicago isn’t the Windy City for the reason you may think
Chicago is called the Windy City, but don’t picture winds howling through the city as the inspiration behind the famous nickname. The reason Chicago is called the Windy City has nothing to do with the weather!
Speaking of gusty winds, we have another hair dryer activity to understand why a stretch of rainy weather makes it easier for winds to knock down trees than when it’s been dry:
🔎 August 12 - Weather Detectives! Why so windy near the lake and ocean?
We recently learned why clouds tend to bubble up more over the land than the water during the spring and summer, but now let’s think about wind. Why is it usually windier when you are near a lake or ocean than farther inland? Grab a hair dryer and let’s explore more:
🦅 August 12 - Bird Watching: Up close view of one tiny, fascinating bird!
Do you see red bird feeders around your neighborhood? There’s no seed in these feeders, but a clear liquid. One tiny bird that beats its wings about 53 times a second and can travel across the Gulf of Mexico without stopping drinks from these feeders. Let’s learn more about the fascinating Ruby-throated Hummingbird:
Did you know that the hummingbird seen in the video above can’t walk or hop? The Cornell University Bird Lab says that its legs are too short!
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, but there are other types of hummingbirds across the world.
(Pixabay/skeeze)
🦸🏽♀️ August 11 - Superhero powers: Cool coin-balloon trick to do at home
Here’s a neat trick for you to show your friends – put a few coins in a balloon, blow it up and give the balloon a shake. The cool part happens after you stop shaking the balloon and watch as the coins keep going around and around inside! Check it out:
As cool as this trick from AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls is, there is a science lesson behind it! You saw centrifugal force and inertia in action.
Inertia states that all objects and matter in the whole universe will continue moving in the same direction and speed unless there is another force trying to slow or stop them or change their direction. Centrifugal force is an apparent force that acts outward on an object moving around a center, arising from that object’s inertia.
So the shake you gave to the balloon kicked off the inertia of the coins and the centrifugal force kept them spinning around the balloon, when gravity may have gotten in the way otherwise.
🔥 August 11 - Campfire Tales: Hurricane Belle was not pretty
Have you ever dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast? Belle was so pretty and, even better, she was so nice to everyone in the castle and fell in love with the beast.
However, there is one Belle in history some people would like to forget – that is Hurricane Belle that struck the northeastern United States in August 1976. Let’s gather around the campfire and hear more of this damaging and deadly storm from the AccuWeather This Date in Weather History podcast:
Interestingly, there hasn’t been a Hurricane Belle since 1976, but the name wasn’t retired. When Belle slammed into the U.S., only female names were used for tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. That changed in 1979 when male names were introduced, causing Belle to be dropped from the list.
⛅️ August 11 - Cloud scavenger hunt: Beach’s force field against storms
Have you ever noticed how on some days in the spring and summer, clouds and storms will bubble up just inland from the beach and the sky over the water stays sunny? Find out what happens over land (and an activity to understand that more) that allows what is like a force field for the beach against clouds and storms.
One thing to remember is that even if you aren’t getting rained on at the beach but a thunderstorm is nearby, you could be close enough to be struck by lightning – and the crashing of the ocean waves makes it even more important for you to keep an eye to the sky and your AccuWeather app.
🏥 August 10 - First aid class: Can lightning victims electrocute you?
What scares you the most during a thunderstorm – loud claps of thunder? That’s scary and makes you want to hide under the covers. However, it’s the lightning that we all need to run indoors from! Worse than causing those loud booms of thunder, lightning can kill and hurt people and animals.
Severe weather rolled through swaths of Pennsylvania in August 2019, downing several trees and power lines across the state. (AccuWeather/Brian Lada)
Did you know that only about 10 percent of the people struck by lightning are killed? Our friends at the National Weather Service say that’s true, and it means that 90 percent of people who are struck survive but some can get hurt really badly.
If you see a person get struck by lightning, would you be worried of getting shocked if you touch that person? Don’t be – you won’t get electrocuted! Let’s find out more and what you can do to help save that person’s life:
⚡ August 10 - Shocking Truth: 5 ways you can be struck by lightning
When you hear of someone being struck by lightning, a scary image of a bolt directly hitting them may come to mind. These direct lightning strikes can be the most deadly, but there are four other more common ways people are struck:
The above is why you should always take thunderstorms seriously – remember to head indoors as soon as thunder is heard. Stay away from windows and off computers, phones and anything else that is plugged in.
Thunderstorms are a good excuse to delay your kitchen chores as you shouldn’t wash dishes – much like you should wait until a thunderstorm passes to take a shower or bath.
🥕 August 10 - Gardening Time! Garden check-in on this autumn day
AccuWeather Meteorologist Chris Nallan gets down into the dirt in his garden (with his bare feet!) to give us an update -- let’s see how his veggies are growing and how cloudy days, even without rain, are good for your garden every now and then:
When the sun is shining brightly this time of year, it may feel hot – but did you know that it is already autumn in the Northern Hemisphere? It’s autumn if you are following the solar calendar, which is based on the strength of the sun’s rays.
Most of us follow astronomical seasons. If you check your 2020 calendar, more than likely it will list the first day of autumn as being on September 22 (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere – that day is the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere).
In between the start of solar and astronomical autumn, meteorological autumn starts at the beginning of September. Meteorological seasons are based on average temperatures with summer being the warmest time of the year and winter being the coldest.
🔥 August 7 - Campfire Tales: How reliable are car thermometers?
We learned earlier that bank thermometers can read too high on sunny days, and the same thing can happen with car thermometers. Worse yet – rain, snow and even something inside your car can give you a wrong temperature reading. Let’s grab our infrared thermometers and explore the reasons why:
Car thermometers should be used as a guide and not be solely relied on to know when temperatures have dropped below freezing – since that is extremely important if there is a threat of ice in your area.
Sometimes after a really long stretch of cold weather, roads can stay colder and turn icy well after the temperature rises above freezing and rain is falling on your windshield. Also, car thermometers can’t tell you when a colder, shaded area with a lingering icy spot is coming up.
While you should use car thermometers as just a guide, your car’s trusty metal frame will protect you from lightning strikes. Remember, it’s not the rubber tires that keep you safe from lightning in a car!
🔎 August 7 - Weather Detectives! Don’t be fooled by bank thermometers!
Next time you drive past a bank thermometer on a sunny day, compare the temperature you see with the one on your car thermometer or on your AccuWeather app. More than likely, that bank thermometer will read a much higher temperature – and one that is not right.
You get a gold star if you and your family have your outdoor thermometer positioned in the shade – that’s what meteorologists do.
Temperatures soared to the century on a bank thermometer in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
🥤 August 7 - Water break! Tips to stay cool without air conditioning
It’s time to beat the heat at AccuWeather Summer Camp with ways to stay cool if you don’t have A.C. or want to help your parents save on electricity bills. If you miss the beach, one tip shown below makes it feel like you are sitting in the sand with a misty breeze blowing on you!
Before air conditioning was invented, people had to come up with even more unique ways to stay cool – including dunking their heads in large water fountains!
If you can’t stay inside on a hot day, don’t forget that light-colored clothing is always a better choice than darker colors:
🐠 August 6 - Aquarium Trip: 5 sharks that probably won’t eat you
While we hear of shark attacks each year, you don’t have to be scared of all sharks. Here are five sharks that more than likely don’t care that you are in the ocean -- one of these sharks is among the laziest fish in the ocean!
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