T2 Wks4&5 (15-28 May) Weather 2

As a rough guide to our learning, we'll use the NCEA unit standards below. The content in these standards will help you when you complete your LEARNING JOURNAL, which will form part of your assessment.

NCEA Unit Std 20159 L2 (2 credits) Gather and apply weather information to an outdoor recreation activity
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/assessment/view-detailed.do?standardNumber=20159

One to aim for in future:
NCEA Unit Std 20160 L3 (2 credits) Demonstrate knowledge of weather processes and their effects in NZ
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/assessment/view-detailed.do?standardNumber=20160

Topics covered include:

• Global air & water movements (High & low pressure systems - converge, diverge, rotate in lower atmosphere). Effect of unequal heating of land - global atmospheric circulation.
  
• Movement of water in 'water cycle'
• Seasonal impacts, equinox & solstice - passage & position of Earth around Sun
• Weather features resulting from air/water movement - Katabatic / Anabatic winds
• Vertical air movement - changes in temperature & pressure
• Clouds and fog - humidity, temperature, wind, lifting processes. Types of low, medium and high level clouds.
• Influences on NZ’s weather - global origins of air masses, geographic (lake, mountains, valleys, global location, orientation of land forms.
• Seasonal variations on NZ weather patterns - wind direction / speed, precipitation, sunshine hours, temperature.

Here's a great documentary about NZ's weather and what influences it, by Weatherman Jim Hickey


For anyone who's interested, here's an interesting blog post about many weather features that we've discussed in class:
http://bleedingheartindependent.blogspot.com/