How to use weather.gov data in your classroom

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Weather.gov is a great entry point for introducing your students to data. It's an easy way to get students involved in learning about maps, graphs, numbers, variables, and more.

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So let's dive in. Here are a few ways that you, as a teacher or educator, can use NOAA data in your classroom. When you get to weather.gov. You'll see brief text headlines across the top that summarize weather that's happening across the country. You've got a large map of the United States, which is color coded to show current weather warnings and advisories.

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For example, coastal flood warnings, extreme heat warnings, and wind advisories. Now let's explore this data. Here are some prompting questions for your class. What warnings are you seeing on this map? Are there any warnings in effect near where you live? Are there any seasonal warnings in effect across the country like hurricanes, heat or snow? Are there any warnings you don't recognize?

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Could those warnings ever apply to where you live?

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Are there any warnings affecting water? Remember, these warnings cover both land and coastal waters.

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Now let's zoom in and take a look at a local forecast. For this example, we'll use Norman, Oklahoma, because that's where the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory is based out of. So you'll scroll up to the top left corner of the weather.gov homepage and type in the area that you'd like to look at. I'm typing in Norman, Oklahoma.

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Great. This brings us to our local forecast for Norman. You can see the current conditions in the area as well as an extended and detailed forecast. Now remember a forecast is a prediction of future weather conditions. Observed weather is the actual weather that occurs at a specific time and location. We'll look at observed weather conditions shortly. Once you explore the current local conditions, here are some prompting questions for your class.

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What is the forecast for today and tomorrow? What does the forecast look like for the rest of the week? And what has the weather been like in the past few days? Well, looking at the forecast, we can't see the past observed weather, but we can find this data in the three day history right here. When you open the three day history, you will see observed weather conditions in the form of recorded weather data such as wind, sky conditions, air temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and precipitation.

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Don't worry if your students don't yet understand what these terms mean. In the description of the video, I'll link to the National Weather Service glossary, which defines the technical terms used here.

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In your classroom, you could easily copy and paste this data into a spreadsheet.

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Pick any one of these variables and have students track the data over time to see trends and changes. You could even record the forecast each day with your class, and then return the following day to chart the observed weather. Once you have enough observations, you could discuss trends and possible explanations and ask questions like was there specific weather forecasted to happen, like precipitation or wind that didn't happen in the recorded observed weather?

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Why might that be? What is the difference between a forecast and an observation? Or do you notice any differences between a forecasted data and observed data?

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Going further, you can compare different areas of the country and ask questions like how is your local three day weather history different from another area in the country, or how are they the same? Do you notice any seasonal patterns or changes between the two locations you're comparing? Depending on your goals, you can have your students build graphs over weeks, seasons, or even the whole year.

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You could even pick places across the country to compare and contrast, to learn about weather patterns and how different variables are connected.

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Finally, you can view even more additional forecasts like graphical, aviation, marine, rivers and lakes, hurricanes, severe weather, fire weather, and more. There is so much to explore on weather.gov. Thanks for listening. You can find other videos like this at NOAA.gov/Education.