Wind and Water

Our colleagues at Listen Edition have posted two recent articles of particular interest to geography educators, both related to weather and climate. Listen Edition is a new blog that serves as a sort of educational concierge of stories from public radio. Teachers in any discipline can use the site for audio, lesson ideas, and in some cases, detailed lesson plans.

Map from the original
NPR Storm Surge story

The first is Storm Surge Science, which describes efforts to communicate more effectively about the geography of storm surges. As Hurricane Sandy demonstrated, the high water driven ashore by hurricanes can be among their most important effects, but many people have not known how to interpret information about the surges. Cartographers and other scientists in New York City and at the National Hurricane Center in Miami are therefore working to create maps that are more effective than the language that has been used in previous storm warnings.

The other story is not going to be directly relevant for a while, but is nonetheless interesting. Canadian volunteers stepped into freezing wind tunnels to calibrate the traditional formula for Wind Chill Factor. A new formula has resulted that more accurately describes how cold a person would fee if exposed to a particular combination of wind and temperature. This story is accompanied by a complete lesson plan.