Our wondrous wind study continues!

Made a Weather Vane

I found the instructions here:  Making a Weather Vane

We determined that we had an Easterly wind blowing that day!

Another Great Bible Discussion NOT to miss

My son asked the question, "Why does God bring bad winds and storms when they hurt people?"  In response to this we read from Weather and the Bible the section entitled Does God Send Deadly Storms?   It had us read from Job 38-42:6 where God spoke to Job out of a storm.  As Job had suffered further physical affliction, he asks the Lord "Why is there evil in the world?"  You can read the passage HERE.  I highly recommend reading this alone and with your children.  It is VERY powerful.  Through it the Lord made CRYSTAL clear that His control over nature and his ultimate purposes are to be trusted.  We simply cannot understand all the details of the divine plan.

Natural disasters are certainly part of our world today, but they are not a surprise to God.  Secular environmentalists see nature as inherently good and normal, however the Biblical view shows things much differently.  Today there are results of the curse operating in nature.  The pain and sorrow of this present world, along with severe weather, demonstrate an imperfect world.  But, praise be to our Father, a new world is coming (Revelation 21).  God has established certain laws and principles that govern nature which have been affected by sin, but we must remember He remains sovereign over all these natural laws.  Job's testimony shows us how trials should bring us closer to God instead of driving us away:  "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21 KJV).

More to look into:  Jonah 1:4, Psalm 148:8, Psalm 42:7.

Trade Winds, Beaufort Scale, and Wind Power

We also read from  100 Things You Should Know About Weather and learned about the trade winds, Beaufort Scale, and Wind Power.

Trade Winds:  Did you know that winds have names?  World wind patterns are called global winds.  The most famous are the trade winds that blow toward the Equator.  Trade winds blow one way north of the Equator and another way south of the Equator.

Trade winds blow in the tropical areas where air is moving to an area of low pressure at the Equator.  Their name comes from their importance to traders when goods traveled by sailing ship.

Beaufort Scale - Wind ranges from fair and light breezes to full blown hurricanes.  It's strength is measured on the Beaufort Scale, named after the Irish admiral who devised it.  The scale ranges from Force 0 (calm) to Force 12 (hurricane).

Wind Power - Did you know that wind can turn on your tv?  Wind can be harnessed to make electricity for our homes.  Tall turbines are positioned in windy spots and the wind turns the turbine and the movement powers a generator and produces electrical energy.

Coriolis Force

Read from The Weather Book about the Coriolis Force.  Because the earth is spinning on its axis, air flow in the atmosphere is more complicated.   The spin causes air to move to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.  This deflecting force on air is called the Coriolis force.  Pretend you are at the center of a disk.  If you throw a ball toward a target on the edge of the disk, the ball will miss to the right.  It will appear the ball was deflected to the right.  What really happened was that as the ball reached the edge, the disk rotated to the left underneath the ball.

The North Wind and the Sun

We read Aesop's Fable "The North Wind and the Sun".  You can find the story HERE.

In my next post I plan on listing some delightful picture books we have read that involve the wind.  And some fantastic websites I've found.  And also about a writing activity we will be doing called "Windy Words."