Warm Water and Rising Air: teacher key

Hurricanes and Tornadoes, grade 7 edition, written for 7th grade. A hurricane runs on warm ocean water and a tornado runs on a thunderstorm. See what feeds each storm, how big each one is, and how the names and ratings work.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How wide is the eye of a hurricane, typically?
   • 20 to 40 miles (answer)
   • 340 miles
   • 250 feet
2. What is a supercell?
   • A calm hurricane center
   • A long-lived, organized thunderstorm with a rotating updraft (answer)
   • A kind of waterspout
3. A tropical storm has winds of 50 mph. Does it get a name?
   • Yes (answer)
   • No
   • Only on land
4. What is a typhoon?
   • A tropical cyclone in the Pacific north of the Equator and west of the International Dateline (answer)
   • A tornado over water
   • A hurricane warning
5. Why do forecasters give storms names?
   • Naming is the fastest way to communicate warnings (answer)
   • Names make storms weaker
   • Names are needed for the eye

Words

• evaporates: turns to vapor
• supercell: rotating thunderstorm
• updraft: rising air
• typhoons: Pacific hurricanes
• radar: storm-seeing tool
• tropical: near the Equator