Wild Weather Adventure
For every player's turn in the Wild Weather Adventure Game, the player must answer either a multiple choice or true or false question. Each question is rated as easy, medium, or hard. Players choose which level to answer. Questions come up in random order.
Below are all the questions, answer choices, and correct answers—with short explanations. Questions are listed in easy, medium, and hard categories.
Note: Some questions are about world geography. A reference map is included with the game, and these questions allow extra time to refer to the map.
Easy Questions | Medium Questions | Hard Questions
Easy QuestionsQuestion: If Greenland were named for its true color most of the time, it would be called
Answer: C, Greenland is covered with ice and snow, so might be called "Whiteland."
Question: How many sides does a snowflake have?
Answer: D, A snowflake always has six sides.
Question: In Earth's atmosphere, air moving from a high pressure area to a low pressure area is the cause of
Answer: A, Wind is air moving from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure.
Question: The World Meteorological Organization gives men's and women's names to this type of storm:
Answer: B, Hurricanes are given names.
Question: In this weather event, a cloud sends a rapidly rotating column of air down to the ground.
Answer: D, A tornado is a rotating column of air that touches the ground.
Question: Hurricanes form over the ocean. Which city is most likely to be in the path of a hurricane:
Answer: A, The North Atlantic Ocean is a favorite birthplace for hurricanes, and Miami is sometimes right in their path.
Question: A shelter made of ice built by the Inuit people in Greenland is called
Answer: D, The Inuit people make igloos out of ice and snow.
Question: When pieces of ice fall from the clouds, we call it
Answer: B, Hail stones are ice balls that form in clouds.
Question: Which of the following carries instruments that take pictures of Earth's weather from space?
Answer: B, Weather satellites take pictures and other measurements of Earth's weather.
Question: The center of a hurricane is called its
Answer: A, The center of a hurricane is called its eye.
Question: In which of these places is it most likely to snow in December?
Answer: A, Bismarck, ND, is farther from the equator than the other cities, so is more likely to have cold weather.
Question: Visible air pollution is often called
Answer: C, The word "smog" blends the words "smoke" and "fog;" smog usually just means air pollution.
Question: The places on Earth that are very hot and dry are called
Answer: A, Deserts get little rainfall and are often very hot in the summer.
Question: The blanket of air around Earth is called the
Answer: B, The atmosphere is Earth's protective blanket of air.
Question: Clouds are made of air and
Answer: D, Clouds are made of air and water droplets (sometimes frozen as ice and snow).
Question: Lightning is
Answer: A, Lightning is electricity, jumping from cloud to cloud or cloud to Earth.
Question: Thunder is the sound of
Answer: B, A lightning bolt heats the nearby air very hot; thunder is the sound of the surrounding cold air masses banging back together.
Question: What acts like a big blanket over the earth, holding in the warmth and reflecting it back to earth?
Answer: A, Like a blanket, the atmosphere helps to keep Earth warm.
Question: What are we likely to see curving across the sky when the Sun comes out in the late afternoon after a rain storm?
Answer: B, A rainbow appears when water droplets in the air bend sunlight into all its different colors.
Question: If you could look at Earth from above the North Pole in winter, you would think Earth was
Answer: B, The arctic area around the North Pole is white in the winter because of sea ice.
Question: Bombay, India, lies on which sea?
Answer: D, Bombay is on the Arabian Sea.
Question: Which is farthest north?
Answer: C, England is at a higher latitude (farther north) than Cuba, Japan, or Australia.
Question: Which is farthest north?
Answer: A, The Bering Sea touches the southwest part of Alaska, much farther north than the other choices.
Question: Which is farthest north?
Answer: A, Butte, Montana, is farther north than Beijing, Hilo, or San Francisco.
Question: Which is farthest south?
Answer: A, Sydney, Australia, is farther south than Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, or Hilo.
Question: Which is farthest south?
Answer: D, Tazmania is farther south than Cape Town, Miami, or Mexico City.
Question: Cape Horn is at the very southern tip of
Answer: B, Cape Horn is at the southern tip of South America.
Question: In the United States of America, the days are longest (most hours of sunlight) during
Answer: C, In the U.S., summer solstice—the day with the most hours of sunlight—comes in June.
Question: In the United States of America, the days are shortest (fewest hours of sunlight) during
Answer: In the U.S., winter solstice—the day with the fewest hours of sunlight—comes in December.
Question: At sea level and at a temperature of 212 °F (100 °C), water
Answer: B, Water boils at 212 °F (100 °C) at sea level. At higher altitudes, it boils at a cooler temperature.
Question: True or False: The Caribbean Sea is north of the equator.
Answer: True, the Caribbean Sea is northeast of Central America, north of the equator.
Question: True or False: The Philippine Islands are north of the equator.
Answer: True, the Philippine Islands are southeast of China, north of the equator.
Question: True or False: The United States of America is bordered by just two countries.
Answer: True, the U.S. is bordered only by Canada on the north and Mexico on the south.
Question: True or False: The equator passes through South America and Africa.
Answer: True, the equator passes through the north part of South America and the central part of Africa.
Question: True or False: The equator passes through Europe and North America.
Answer: False, North America and Europe lie far north of the equator.
Question: True or False: The Black Sea lies north of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Answer: True, the Black Sea is north of Turkey, while the Mediterranean Sea is south of Turkey.
Question: True or False: Norway is east of Sweden.
Answer: False, Norway is Sweden's neighbor to the west.
Question: True or False: The United States of America is in the continent of North America.
Answer: True, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are in North America.
Question: True or False: The Hawaiian Islands are south of the equator.
Answer: False, the Hawaiian Islands are north of the equator.
Question: True or False: Sri Lanka is an island just south of Japan.
Answer: False, Sri Lanka lies off the southern tip of India.
Question: True or False: A weather forecast for one week from now is more likely to be accurate than a forecast for tomorrow.
Answer: False, weather forecasts become less certain the farther into the future they predict.
Question: In 1900, before weather satellites were on duty to warn of coming storms, in what U.S. city were around 7,000 people killed by an intense and expected hurricane?
Answer: A, Galveston, TX, is on a low-lying barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico. People knew a storm was coming, but not how severe it would be.
Question: Each year, December 21 is one day the Sun never comes up in this location:
Answer: D, The North Pole is most tilted away from the Sun on December 21, such that the Sun is never seen there on that day.
Question: A slowly flowing river of ice is called
Answer: B, A glacier is a slowly moving river of ice.
Question: Which one of the following conditions is unlikely to happen to someone because of very cold weather:
Answer: D, In very cold weather people can get frostbite, shivering, and hypothermia (the body's temperature drops dangerously). Freckles are unrelated to cold.
Question: Sometimes people who exercise in very hot, humid weather and don't drink enough water may suffer
Answer: B, A person may have a dangerous heatstroke from being too hot and not getting enough water to drink.
Question: Too much exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light from the Sun causes all of these problems to humans EXCEPT:
Answer: B, The ultraviolet rays of the Sun can cause sunburns, skin cancer, and early wrinkles, but not arthritis.
Question: The hottest day ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere was in Death Valley, California, on July 10, 1913, when the temperature reached
Answer: B, The temperature in Death Valley reached 56.7 °C (134 °F) that day.
Question: Because Earth is tilted on its axis of rotation, when it's baking in Boise, Idaho, during July, it's mild and cool in
Answer: A, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so is having winter when it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere (where Boise is located).
Question: If you are caught outside in a lightning storm, the worst thing you could do is
Answer: C, Lightning usually seeks the highest point on the ground, so you should stay away from trees.
Question: When a very intense thunderstorm stalls over one area for a long time, the result can be
Answer: B, Flash floods can happen when a storm keeps dumping rain in one location for a long time.
Question: Water's three phases are
Answer: A, Phases of water are ice, liquid water, and water vapor. Phases (states of matter) depend on temperature and pressure.
Question: Of the following cities, which gets the least annual rainfall?
Answer: D, At less than 10 inches of rain per year, Las Vegas, NV, is usually the driest of the cities listed.
Question: The high-altitude, high-speed jet stream that blows from west to east across the U.S. is used
Answer: The jet stream usually blows west to east, and is often at an altitude where jet planes fly, so helps them save fuel when heading east.
Question: Named because of its similarity to a battlefield, the area where air masses clash is called a
Answer: C, Where air masses of different densities and temperatures come together is called a front.
Question: An instrument that measures atmospheric pressure is called a
Answer: B, A barometer measures atmospheric pressure.
Question: If you see lightning and 5 seconds later you hear thunder, the lightning has struck the ground
Answer: A, It takes sound about 5 seconds to travel 1.6 kilometers (1 mile).
Question: The images of clouds and storms over the U.S. that are shown on TV weather reports are usually made by
Answer: D, The GOES can take pictures of the whole western hemisphere at one time, they can track the movement of weather systems.
Question: A hurricane's size and movement can best be seen from
Answer: C, The GOES are so high and their imagers so good they can see storms forming out in the oceans and "watch" their changes and movements.
Question: A scientist who studies weather is called a
Answer: C, A meteorologist is a scientist who studies weather.
Question: The tilt of Earth's axis of rotation is the reason for
Answer: D, Earth has seasons because of the tilt of its axis of rotation as it orbits the Sun.
Question: When the temperature outside drops below 32 °F or 0 °C, something special happens. What is it?
Answer: D, At 32 °F or 0 °C, water freezes into ice (at sea level).
Question: The amount of water in the air is called
Answer: B, Humidity is the amount of water in the air.
Question: A thermometer measures
Answer: C, A thermometer measures temperature.
Question: In January, it is winter in Earth's
Answer: A, In January, Earth's Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, thus making it the coldest part of the year, winter.
Question: In June, the Sun never sets on
Answer: D, Earth's axis of rotation is tilted, and the North Pole tilts farthest toward the Sun in June, making for a few days of 24-hours of sunlight.
Question: The two Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) perform the following services:
Answer: D, The POES do all these jobs, gathering data for predicting weather, tracking animals wearing special transmitters, and spotting forest fires.
Question: Frozen raindrops tossed around inside a cloud, are coated with water, then frozen again, and finally get too heavy and fall to the ground as
Answer: C, Hail stones are formed inside clouds and can vary from the size of peas to the size of golf balls—and larger.
Question: Which of these bodies of water does not touch the United States of America?
Answer: C, All except for the Black Sea touch the USA. The Black Sea is in eastern Europe.
Question: Which of these is the largest body of water?
Answer: B, The South Pacific is by far the largest of these areas of water. It covers nearly one-quarter of the planet!
Question: The Sun rises in the east (except very close to the North and South Poles) because
Answer: A, Earth rotates west to east, so the Sun appears to "rise" on the eastern horizon as your location on Earth turns toward the Sun.
Question: Which of these countries is closest to the United States?
Answer: D, Cuba is closest to the U.S., about 90 miles (150km) from Florida.
Question: Where and in what direction do the trade winds blow?
Answer: B, The trade winds blow near the equator, east to west. They are the result of persistent high pressure areas.
Question: Which direction do the prevailing westerlies blow?
Answer: A, The prevailing westerlies are predominant winds that blow west to east.
Question: The polar easterlies blow from
Answer: B, The polar easterlies are predominant winds that blow east to west.
Question: An anemometer measures
Answer: B, An anemometer measures wind speed.
Question: For you to see a rainbow, the Sun must be
Answer: C, To see a rainbow, you must have the Sun behind you.
Question: Water freezes at what temperature?
Answer: B, At sea level, water turns to ice at 32 °F (or 0 °C).
Question: True or False: In December, the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun.
Answer: True, Earth is tilted on its axis of rotation, with the North Pole tilted away from the Sun in December.
Question: True or false: Lightning kills more people each year than tornados and hurricanes combined.
Answer: True, on average, lightning kills over 90 people per year in the U.S., more than tornados and hurricanes combined.
Question: True or False: The Doldrums form along the equator.
Answer: True, the doldrums are areas along the equator where the winds blow lightly or not at all.
Question: A continent-sized blast of icy cold air coming from the Arctic that can rapidly chill much of the United States is called a
Answer: A, A polar surge is a huge mass of cold air blowing southward from the Arctic.
Question: What if all the glaciers and ice sheets in the world were to melt?
Answer: C, All this melting ice would raise sea levels so much that most coastal cities around the world would be under water.
Question: What is the highest temperature ever recorded in Fairbanks, Alaska?
Answer: B, On June 27, 1915, Fairbanks, AK, reached 38 °C (100 °F), still a record.
Question: Because Earth is tilted on its axis of rotation, which of these cities is least likely to have a white Christmas?
Answer: D, In December, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, where South Africa is.
Question: Which of these reflects more of the Sun's energy back into space?
Answer: A, White materials (such as clouds) reflect more energy than do darker materials, such as trees and oceans.
Question: How does hot weather affect airplanes taking off?
Answer: A, Hot air is thinner than cool air. To lift off, planes need a certain density of air under the wings. To take off in less dense air, they need to get going faster.
Question: All the energy for making storms starts out from:
Answer: C, The Sun heats the oceans, the land, and the atmosphere. It is this heat energy that drives weather.
Question: Which of the following U.S. cities get the most annual rainfall?
Answer: D, Annual rainfall in Hilo, HI, is around 325 cm (128 in); Portland, OR, 94 cm (37 in); Annette, AK, 292 cm (115 in); and Pensacola, FL, 178 cm (70 in).
Question: The world record for wind speed of 253 miles per hour (407 km/h) was set in 1996 at
Answer: B, Barrow Island, Australia, holds the record as the windiest place on Earth.
Question: Tornados cause all of the following types of damage EXCEPT
Answer: D, Tornadoes generally occur over land, and do not cause storm surges. Storm surges are abnormally high seas along the shoreline caused by strong winds.
Question: When cold winds blowing from the north and hot, humid winds blowing from the south meet over the plains in the middle of the U.S., which kind of weather is likely:
Answer: D, Tornados often result when a mass of cold air meets up with a mass of warm, humid air.
Question: The temperature at the surface of the Sun is about 6000 °C (11,000 °F). The temperature of a lightning bolt is about
Answer: A, At 28,000 °C (50,000 °F), a lightning bolt is much hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Question: Which country has the wildest weather—that is, the greatest variety of extreme weather conditions—in the world?
Answer: B, The United States has the wildest weather on Earth.
Question: In what state of the United States are the most people killed by lightning strikes each year?
Answer: C, Florida has by far the most lightning deaths, with an average of about 10 per year.
Question: If all the ice covering Greenland and the other smaller ice caps around the arctic (North Pole) were to melt, sea level around the world would rise by
Answer: D, Sea level would rise by 20 feet (6 m) if all the ice in Greenland and other arctic ice were to melt.
Question: The National Weather Service is operated by which government agency?
Answer: C, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the National Weather Service.
Question: If it is 30 °F (-1 °C) outside, and the wind is blowing 25 miles per hour (40 km/h), how cold will it feel to you outside?
Answer: B, When it's cold and the wind blows, your body feels colder than if the air is still. At 30 °F (-1 °C) and a 25-mph (40 km/h) wind, it would feel like only 1 °F (-17 °C).
Question: Saucer-shaped clouds that sometimes form over mountains and have been mistaken for UFOs are called
Answer: C, Clouds that are shaped by mountain tops are called lenticular clouds.
Question: Beautiful dancing curtains of colored light called the aurora can sometimes be seen in the night skies near
Answer: D, The auroras (also called Northern Lights or Southern Lights) appear in the skies nearest the North and South Poles.
Question: The largest desert in the world is the
Answer: B, The Sahara Desert in northern Africa is the largest desert in the world that isn't near the north or south pole.
Question: Which of the following gases is most abundant in Earth's atmosphere?
Answer: C, Air is 78% nitrogen. Oxygen is 21%. All the other gases make up only about 1% of the atmosphere.
Question: A psychrometer is used to measure
Answer: B, A psychrometer [si-KROM-uh-ter] measures relative humidity by comparing the readings of wet and dry bulb thermometers.
Question: Water vapor in air condenses at its
Answer: C, The dew point is the temperature at which water vapor turns back into liquid water (condenses).
Question: Mercury is 13.6 times heavier than water. If atmospheric pressure raises a column of mercury in a barometer about 30 inches (760 mm), how tall would a water barometer have to be?
Answer: A, Because 13.6 x 30 in (760 mm) = 408 in (10,336 mm), and 408 in ÷ 12 in = 34 feet, a water barometer column would have to be at least 34 feet (10 m) tall.
Question: Water vapor will condense from air when the air is
Answer: A, Air is saturated when it can hold no more water vapor, so that's when water begins to condense (turn back into liquid water).
Question: If you saw cumulonimbus clouds forming in the sky above you, what kind of weather would you expect?
Answer: B, Cumulonimbus clouds usually mean a thunderstorm is on the way.
Question: The boundary between two different air masses is called a
Answer: D, As on a battlefield, where two different kinds of air masses meet (say, one cold and dry, the other warm and humid) is called a front.
Question: In experiments called cloud seeding, what material have humans dropped or shot into a cloud in order to increase the likelihood of rain?
Answer: A, Silver iodide particles have been used to seed clouds.
Question: Meteorologists use information from all EXCEPT the following sources in making weather forecasts:
Answer: D, Radar, satellites, and weather stations all provide information on weather. Seismometers measure earthquakes.
Question: The orbit of the newest Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) is at what altitude above Earth's surface?
Answer: B, The POES orbit is about 870 km (540 miles) above Earth's surface.
Question: Which of the following cloud types generally reaches the highest altitude?
Answer: B, Cumulonimbus clouds can sometimes reach up to 18 kilometers (over 11 miles). No other types of clouds are found that high in the atmosphere.
Question: If the actual amount of water vapor in the air remains the same, but the temperature of the air goes up, the relative humidity will
Answer: B, The relative humidity will go down, because warm air holds more water vapor than cooler air.
Question: An important greenhouse gas that humans are adding to the atmosphere is
Answer: Carbon dioxide levels are only about 368 parts per million of air, but it is the most significant greenhouse gas. Tiny changes have big effects.
Question: The latitude that receives the most direct rays of the sun year-round is
Answer: D, The equator is at latitude 0°, which gets the most direct rays of the Sun year round.
Question: How fast must the winds be blowing inside a tropical storm for it to be "upgraded" to a hurricane?
Answer: C, By definition, to be called a hurricane, a storm must have winds of at least 74 mph (119 km/h).
Question: The GOES satellites keep an eye on the weather from their geostationary orbits, which are at an altitude how high above the equator?
Answer: B, The geostationary orbits of the GOES are at about 22,300 miles (36,000 km) above Earth's surface, at the equator.
Question: True or False: In January, Earth is farthest from the Sun.
Answer: False, in January, Earth is at its closest point to the Sun. It is winter in the Northern Hemisphere because the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun.
Question: True or False: Latitude has much more affect on climate than does longitude.
Answer: True, latitude is a measure of distance from the equator. The higher a location's latitude (whether north or south), the less directly the Sun shines on it.
Question: True or False: Dallas, Texas, at latitude 33°N, get less solar radiation than does San Francisco at latitude 37° N.
Answer: False, the lower the latitude number, the more solar radiation, or sunshine, the location receives. (The equator is latitude 0° so gets the most.)
Question: True or False: The windward side of a mountain range generally gets more rain than does the leeward side.
Answer: True, the windward side faces the prevailing winds, so creates air turbulence and becomes an obstacle for clouds to "stack up" against.