Geography · Unit 7

Weather and Climate

The atmosphere, weather and climate

Weather is what the atmosphere is doing now; climate is what it does on average over decades. Conflating them causes most of the confusion in public argument about the subject.

The unit covers the atmosphere's structure, what drives weather systems, how weather is measured and forecast, extreme events, and the climate types that emerge when you average all of it over long enough.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

Weather
Extreme Weather
Measuring Weather
Weather Systems
Climate

Where this fits

Leads directly into Climate Zones and Biomes, and supplies the physical basis for the climate change content in Environment and Sustainability.

Where people slip

A cold week says nothing about climate, and a hot decade says little about any particular day. The two operate on different timescales and neither is evidence about the other.

How the unit is structured

Weather and Climate runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Climate

Fact or fibLevel 2
1. 'It rained here yesterday' is an example of climate rather than weather.
Answer: False
A single day of rain is weather; climate is the long-term average pattern.
Fill the blankLevel 2
2. In summer, your part of the Earth is tilted ____ the Sun.
- towardscorrect
- away from
- beneath
- behind
When your hemisphere tilts towards the Sun it receives more direct sunlight and warmth, which is summer.
Guess the numberLevel 2
3. Scientists usually work out a place's climate from weather records collected over at least how many years?
Answer: 30 years
Climate is the average weather taken over a long period, typically at least 30 years.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
4. Arrange the words to explain what happens to air at the equator.
Answer: warm air rises forming a belt of low pressure
Intense heating at the equator makes warm air rise, forming a belt of low pressure and heavy rainfall.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
5. Which of these are named cells of the global atmospheric circulation? Select all that apply.
- Hadley cellcorrect
- Ferrel cellcorrect
- Polar cellcorrect
- Coriolis cell
Each hemisphere has three circulation cells: the Hadley, Ferrel and Polar cells; there is no cell named after Coriolis.
Match the pairsLevel 3
6. Match each climate factor to the effect it usually has.
Answer: Higher altitude = Lower temperatures; Nearer the equator = Higher temperatures; Warm ocean current offshore = Milder coastal winters; Far from the sea = Bigger annual temperature range
Higher altitude cools a place, lower latitude warms it, a warm current mildens the coast, and being far inland widens the temperature range.

Extreme Weather

Multiple choiceLevel 1
7. What is a drought?
- A long period with little or no raincorrect
- A sudden heavy flood
- A very windy day
- A heavy snowstorm
A drought is a long spell of unusually dry weather that can dry out rivers, soil and crops.
Odd one outLevel 1
8. Which of these is NOT an example of extreme weather?
- Gentle breezecorrect
- Blizzard
- Drought
- Heatwave
Blizzards, droughts and heatwaves are extreme; a gentle breeze is calm, ordinary weather.
Fact or fibLevel 2
9. Tropical cyclones lose strength and fade once they move over land, cut off from warm ocean water.
Answer: True
Land removes the cyclone's warm, moist fuel and adds friction, so the storm quickly weakens after landfall.
Guess the numberLevel 2
10. Snow and ice form when the temperature drops to about how many degrees Celsius or below?
Answer: 0 degrees Celsius
Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius, so snow and ice form at or below that temperature.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
11. Which of these can help cause a drought? Select all that apply.
- A long spell of below-average rainfallcorrect
- A blocking high-pressure system that keeps rain awaycorrect
- An El Nino event that shifts rainfall patternscorrect
- A passing cold front bringing heavy showers
Long spells of below-average rain, blocking high pressure and shifts such as El Nino can all bring drought; a cold front usually brings rain, not drought.
Match the pairsLevel 3
12. Match each famous tropical storm to the place it struck.
Answer: Hurricane Katrina = New Orleans; Cyclone Nargis = Myanmar; Hurricane Sandy = New York; Cyclone Tracy = Darwin
Katrina flooded New Orleans (2005), Nargis hit Myanmar (2008), Sandy struck New York (2012) and Tracy destroyed much of Darwin (1974).

Measuring Weather

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. On a weather forecast, a symbol of a yellow ____ means it will be sunny.
- suncorrect
- cloud
- umbrella
- snowflake
Weather maps use simple picture symbols, and a sun symbol means clear, sunny weather.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
14. Which instrument measures how much rain has fallen?
- Rain gaugecorrect
- Thermometer
- Anemometer
- Barometer
A rain gauge collects and measures the amount of rainfall.
Tap the pairsLevel 1
15. Match each weather symbol to the day it shows.
Answer: Sun symbol = Sunny day; Cloud symbol = Cloudy day; Raindrops symbol = Rainy day; Snowflake symbol = Snowy day
Weather forecasts use simple picture symbols to show the expected conditions at a glance.
Match the pairsLevel 2
16. Match each weather instrument to what it measures.
Answer: Thermometer = Temperature; Rain gauge = Rainfall; Anemometer = Wind speed; Barometer = Air pressure
Each weather instrument measures a different part of the weather.
Spell itLevel 2
17. Spell the term for a line on a weather map that joins places of equal air pressure.
Answer: isobar
An isobar links points of equal pressure; the spacing between isobars shows how strong the wind will be.
True or falseLevel 2
18. A barometer measures air pressure, which helps forecasters predict the weather.
Answer: True
Falling pressure often means rain is coming, while rising pressure suggests fair weather.

Weather

Build the sentenceLevel 1
19. Build a sentence that explains what wind is.
Answer: Wind is moving air
Wind is simply air on the move, caused by differences in air pressure.
Fill the blankLevel 1
20. Sunshine, rain, snow and wind are all different types of ____.
- weathercorrect
- climate
- seasons
- rock
These are all kinds of weather - the short-term conditions in the atmosphere.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
21. What does the word 'weather' describe?
- The day-to-day state of the atmosphere, like sun, rain or wind
- The average conditions in a place over 30 years
- The way rocks are worn down over time
- The study of maps and grid references
Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a place and time, and it can change quickly.
Sort into groupsLevel 1
22. Sort each weather into warm weather or cold weather.
Answer: Heatwave = Warm weather; Sunshine = Warm weather; Frost = Cold weather; Snow = Cold weather
Heatwaves and sunshine bring warmth, while frost and snow happen in cold conditions.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
23. Which of these are types of precipitation (water falling from the sky)?
- Raincorrect
- Snowcorrect
- Hailcorrect
- Sunshine
Precipitation is water that falls from clouds as rain, snow, sleet or hail.
Sequence recallLevel 2
24. Put these temperatures in order from coldest to hottest.
Answer: Freezing -> Cold -> Warm -> Scorching
Temperature describes how hot or cold it is, from freezing cold to scorching hot.

Weather Systems

Build the sentenceLevel 2
25. Build a sentence describing what happens along the Intertropical Convergence Zone.
Answer: Trade winds meet and rise at the equator
At the ITCZ the trade winds meet and the heated air rises at the equator, forming towering clouds and heavy rain.
Fill the blankLevel 2
26. Wind blows from areas of high pressure towards areas of ____ pressure.
- lowcorrect
- high
- equal
- no
Air always moves from high pressure to low pressure, and that moving air is wind.
Guess the numberLevel 2
27. What is the approximate average air pressure at sea level?
Answer: 1013 millibars
Average sea-level pressure is about 1013 millibars; anticyclones are higher and depressions are lower than this.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
28. Which clouds are thin, wispy and high in the sky, made from tiny ice crystals?
- Cirruscorrect
- Cumulus
- Stratus
- Fog
Cirrus clouds are high, feathery clouds made of ice crystals.
Fact or fibLevel 3
29. In the Northern Hemisphere, winds circulate clockwise around an area of high pressure (an anticyclone).
Answer: True
In the Northern Hemisphere winds blow clockwise around high pressure and anticlockwise around low pressure; the reverse is true south of the equator.
Match the pairsLevel 3
30. Match each type of weather front to its main characteristic.
Answer: Warm front = Gentle, prolonged rain from nimbostratus cloud; Cold front = Short, heavy showers from towering cumulonimbus; Occluded front = Warm air lifted completely off the ground; Stationary front = A front that barely moves, giving persistent cloud
Warm fronts give gentle prolonged rain, cold fronts give short heavy showers, occluded fronts lift the warm air off the ground, and stationary fronts barely move.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Weather and Climate

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Weather and Climate

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

More units in Geography

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