2023 Science Olympiad: Meteorology - Everyday weather

Resources for the 2023 Science Olympiad challenge in meteorology. This year's theme is everyday weather.

Science Olympiad is a national STEM competition dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 science education, increasing interest and engagement in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by students and teachers. Science Olympiad tournaments emphasize teamwork, problem solving, and hands-on learning practices. For more information about Science Olympiad, visit www.soinc.org. Here, we share resources from NOAA and our federal partners. 
The Science Olympiad logo on top of a thunderstorm cityscape.

Science Olympiad logo (Image credit: Science Olympiad; Background image courtesy of Sam Farkas. )

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Background information

National Weather Service education 

If you're interested in learning about weather, science, and more, you've come to the right place! You'll find a wealth of weather resources for educators, adults, and children of all ages. On this site, you can explore science, safety, citizen science programs, careers and connect with meteorologists at your local NWS Office.

JetStream - An Online School for Weather

JetStream is designed to help educators, emergency managers, or anyone interested in learning about weather and weather safety. The information contained in JetStream is arranged by subject; beginning with global and large-scale weather patterns followed by lessons on air masses, wind patterns, cloud formations, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, damaging winds, tornados, tropical storms, cyclones and flooding.

NOAA SciJinks

NOAA SciJinks inspires and engages students to learn about weather, satellite meteorology and Earth science. Their page includes background reading, videos, activities, crafts, and more!

National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)

NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory serves the nation by working to improve the leadtime and accuracy of severe weather warnings and forecasts in order to save lives and reduce property damage. Their learning resources and video gallery might be especially useful.

Storm Prediction Center

The NOAA/National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center’s (SPC’s) web site is a great source of information for current severe weather conditions (outlooks and watches), severe weather climatologies, and general severe weather references. SPC focuses mainly on forecasting severe weather phenomena like thunderstorms and tornadoes, and they also provide fire weather outlooks.

Weather Spotter’s Field Guide

Intended as part of SKYWARN® Spotter training, this useful guide includes explanations of severe weather phenomena and also tips on how to stay safe in a variety of severe weather.

National Hurricane Center

The NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) issues watches, warnings, forecasts, and analyses of hazardous tropical weather. The NHC web site provides hazardous tropical weather information for the northern Atlantic and the eastern portion of the northern Pacific Oceans. To learn more about hurricanes, explore our resource collection and safety explainer.

Climate.gov

Dig into news, blogs, data, and more to help build a climate-smart nation. Climate.gov is a source of timely and authoritative scientific data and information about climate.

The CLEAN Network

CLEAN is the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network. Explore the reviewed collection of free, high-quality teaching materials for teaching climate and energy. The collection includes activities, data visualizations, videos, and more.

Heat.gov: National Integrated Heat Health Information System

Heat.gov serves as the premier source of heat and health information for the nation to reduce the health, economic, and infrastructural impacts of extreme heat.

Data resources

Climate Data Online

Climate Data Online (CDO) provides free access an archive of global historical weather and climate data in addition to station history information. These data include quality controlled daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly measurements of temperature, precipitation, wind, and degree days as well as radar data and 30-year Climate Normals.

Surface and upper air maps

Find analyzed and unanalyzed maps from the surface and upper air. Explore today's maps as well as archives back to 1998.

Climate at a Glance

Climate at a Glance, from the National Centers for Environmental Information, shows temperature and precipitation at local, regional, national, and international scales. You can change your parameters to show monthly, seasonal, or multi-year averages. Get started with our tiny tutorial!

Climate monitoring data products

Explore monthly climate reports from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Climate Prediction Center

View real-time products and information that predict and describe climate variations on timescales from weeks to years thereby promoting effective management of climate risk and a climate-resilient society.

Hourly surface data for the U.S.

View real-time hourly temperature, wind chill, and heat index values for North America in this interactive map.

Observed precipitation map

Explore this interactive map with information on observed precipitation spanning from the past year through today.

Snow report maps

From the National Weather Service, this data website provides animated maps of snow data in the contiguous United States going back to 2003.

Severe weather probabilities map

An interactive map with information about the probabilities of tornadoes, wind, and hail across the contiguous United States.

Storm events database

The storm events database includes information on storms and other significant weather phenomena that lead to loss of life, injuries, significant property damage, and/or disruption to commerce; rare, unusual, weather phenomena that generate media attention; and other significant meteorological events, such as record maximum or minimum temperatures or precipitation that occur in connection with another event.

National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

NCEI is a major NOAA data repository that hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. Over 25 petabytes (25 million gigabytes) of atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data are available, including interactive maps, numerical data, satellite imagery, graphs and figures, modeled and predicted data, and more.