Forecasting
the Weather
SUMMARY

This book notes the vital role that
weather plays in our lives and the challenges
that exist in predicting weather accurately. The
book also describes the role of meteorologists
and the tools, both conventional and hightech, that they use to forecast weather on
land, at sea, and in the air.

CAUSE AND EFFECT
MONITOR AND FIX UP

READ THE BOOK
SET PURPOSE

Ask students to set a purpose for
reading Forecasting the Weather. Ideas might
include: to learn about weather tools, to learn
how meteorologists forecast the weather, and
to understand the movement of storms.

STRATEGY SUPPORT: MONITOR AND FIX UP

LESSON VOCABULARY

anemometer
barometer
hygrometer
radiosondes

Have students
preview the book by looking at the
photographs. Then have students look at the
diagram on pages 6–7 on the layers in the
atmosphere and the time-lapse photo on page
17 that tracks the path of Hurricane Andrew.
Ask: What do you think you will learn from this
book?

Have students take notes as they read and
then instruct them to prepare an outline of
Forecasting the Weather. Remind students that
an outline can help them better understand
how a piece of writing is organized and can
serve as a way of summarizing text to support
comprehension. Text features such as captions
can help with the outline’s structure. After
each student has completed an outline, have
students work in small groups to share outline
details and to come up with a final outline to
share with the class. Use these discussions
as an opportunity to review sections with a lot
of technical information, such as the section
on layers of the atmosphere.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
PAGE 4

From the chart, which days in the
10-day forecast show a low temperature of

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REVISIT THE BOOK
READER RESPONSE

1. The Sun heats the atmosphere, which sets
air in motion.
2. Students should be able to follow the path
of the storm. They might want to know how
long the storm lasted, or who was affected
and how.
3. Doppler effect. Possible response: The
Doppler effect made the car’s siren sound
different in different places.
4. Answers will vary. Students might have been
helped by seeing the various objects in
different layers.
EXTEND UNDERSTANDING

Tell students that
many people say weather forecasting is part
science, part art. Have students discuss this.
Tell students that there are
nonscientific ways that people predict
impending weather conditions. For example,
some people say that if their knee aches,
rain is on the way. Encourage students to tell

TARGET SKILL AND STRATEGY
CAUSE AND EFFECT Remind students
that a cause is why something happened;
an effect is what happened. Note that
sometimes a cause may have multiple effects
and an effect may have more than one cause.
Remind students that sometimes clue words
like because and so will help establish cause
and effect. As they read about forecasting
weather, encourage students to ask
themselves: What causes this to happen?
MONITOR AND FIX UP Encourage students
to develop a reading plan. Note that there
are likely to be new words and challenging
concepts in the text, so students will want
to adopt monitoring strategies to check
comprehension as they read. Encourage
students to use fix-up strategies when
they find they are not comprehending:
summarizing facts to clarify ideas and
pinpoint causes and effects; slowing their
reading rate; reading on in the text to find
meaning; rereading chunks of text; using
diagrams and photos.

ADDITIONAL SKILL INSTRUCTION

AUTHOR’S PURPOSE Remind students that an
author’s purpose is the reason he or she has
for writing and that often writers have more

wind speeds of the storm increase. A tropical storm with a wind speed of 74 miles per hour is
classified as a hurricane. When a hurricane makes landfall it loses the tropical moisture and
weakens rapidly. But it can cause massive damage before it does.
High winds are a primary cause of the loss of life and home destruction that can result from
hurricanes. Winds create airborne projectiles out of trees and sharp objects that hurl through
the air and then bang into homes, businesses and even people. In addition, flooding caused by
the coastal storm surge of the ocean and the massive rains that come with hurricanes create
damage. Hurricanes have destroyed fishing piers and other businesses, too.

1. What are two major causes of hurricanes?

2. Name two major causes of hurricane damage.

4. What is another major effect of hurricanes?

© Pearson Education 5

3. What is one major effect of hurricanes?

5. What might you do to prepare for a hurricane?

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Forecasting the Weather

Name

© Pearson Education 5

11.

12.

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