Weather & Seasons

Seasons:

Spring

In the spring, the sun gets stronger, flowers bloom and the trees get new leaves.  Bees are everywhere and they move from flower to flower, collecting pollen and helping plants bear fruit by cross-pollinizing.  The picture on the right shows a honeybee collecting the pollen from a dandelion (a type of yellow flower).  When bees make honey, the taste of the honey depends on the type of flowers that they visited in order to get the pollen necessary to make the honey.  In the United States alone, there are more than 300 varieties of honey.  One of the most common types is made from the pollen of clovers.  The clover is a white flower.

In the pictures below, the little, red bug (in the center of the picture) that is crawling across the white-flowering bush is called a ladybug.  Ladybugs are very common in the United States.  So much so that they have become a part of folk wisdom.  It is said that the number and size of the black dots on a ladybug’s back is a good predictor of the coming winter.  Supposedly, the more black dots on the ladybug’s back, the harsher (colder and snowier) the winter will be.

These pictures show new leaves and flowers on trees in early May in Brooklyn, NY:

Summer

The summer is the part of the year when the sun is the strongest, the days are long and the nights are short.  It is the hottest time of year.  In the northern hemisphere, the summer months are June, July and August.

Fall

Fall is the season when it begins to get colder.  The sun starts to get weaker and the leaves on deciduous trees begin to change their color from green to reds, oranges, yellows and browns.  Below is a picture of a metal structure, adorned with red and orange lights, in the shape of the silhouette of a woman.  In the background, the foliage (leaves) of two trees is well into its autumn discoloration.

Winter

Winter is the coldest season.  Because of the tilt of the earth’s axis and its relative position within its orbit around the sun, it is when number of daylight hours is lowest. At noon in the winter time, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, it still makes a low angle with the horizon.  The reduction in direct sunlight causes the temperatures to be much lower in the Northern Hemisphere in December, January and February and in the Southern Hemisphere in June, July and August.  In some places, including most of the northern states in the United States and all of Canada, it will snow.  It is when plants grow the least, if at all.  Some animals – like bears – will go into hibernation (long periods of sleep).

Weather

Storm front

Storm fronts occur when a low-pressure body of air carrying moisture pushes out a high-pressure, sunny weather system.  This encounter can cause violent changes in the atmosphere, always accompanied by wind, sometimes bringing hail and very often causing severe thunderstorms.

Sunset

During a sunset the clouds turn many shades of red, orange, pink, purple, gray and yellow.  They are always beautiful when the sun is at least partially visible.  This is a picture of the sun setting over the Carribean Sea.

Clouds

Clouds can be light and fluffy, like the one in the picture on the left of a sunny day, or they can be dark and menacing, like those of the storm looming overhead in the picture on the right.

Rain

Rainbow

A rainbow occurs when there is rain in front of you and the sun is shining from behind your back.  There are legends that tell of a pot of gold at the end of any rainbow.  This is impossible since the rainbow has a position relative to the observer and moves as the observer moves.

Below are two pictures of fog.  Fog is low-lying clouds.  It occurs when the air contains a lot of moisture and the temperature falls.  In the pictures are a foggy field and a foggy mountain:

Weather:   rain, hail, sleet, snow, sun, clouds, lightning, thunder, wind,

Landscapes: plain, plateau, valley, mountain, hill, pond, lake, creek, stream, river, sea, ocean, gulf, island,

Worksheet:  Try to fill out the following worksheet to test your knowledge: