INTRODUCTION TO EARTH SCIENCE (ESCI 121)

SAMPLE SCRIPT FOR YOUR WEATHER WATCH PRESENTATION Sanders

Good afternoon, everyone. I’m ______, and today’s date is [the date of your Weather Watch]. We’re going to talk about the weather today in [your city’s name], but first, let’s take a look at conditions across the U.S.

WEATHER ACROSS THE NATION

1) AIR MASSES (NATIONAL WEATHER)

·  The U.S. was affected today by a continental polar / maritime polar / continental tropical / maritime tropical air mass that moved into the [tell what region of the U.S.], bringing with it [describe the air mass in terms of its temperature and moisture content] air.

·  Repeat as necessary to describe every air mass that affected the nation on this day.

2) PRESSURE SYSTEMS (NATIONAL WEATHER)

·  We had a HIGH pressure system over [name states or regions where high pressure systems occurred] today. Residents of that region experienced [describe the weather conditions].

·  Meanwhile, people in [give location(s)where LOWs occurred] experienced [describe the weather conditions due to the low pressure system(s) centered there.

3) FRONTS (NATIONAL WEATHER)
Include each of the following if it applies to your maps. MOST MAPS HAVE AT LEAST TWO OF THESE!
·  A cold front in the [give location] area brought [what kind of weather—temp? precip? Wind?] weather to that region. That cold front is moving to the [tell what direction] .
·  A warm front in the [give location] area brought [what kind of weather—temp? precip? Wind?] weather to that region. That warm front is moving to the [tell what direction] .
·  An occluded front in the [give location] area brought [what kind of weather—temp? precip? Wind?] weather to that region. That occluded front is moving to the [tell what direction]
·  A stationary front in the [give location] area brought [what kind of weather—temp? precip? Wind?] weather to that region. That stationary front will [what will it do over the next day or two?].
4) CLOSELY-SPACED ISOBARS (NATIONAL WEATHER)
Include this statement only if it applies to your maps:
·  As you can see from the closely-packed-together isobars on the map, people in the [tell what area] experienced high winds today, moving from [what direction] to [what direction].
Note to evaluator: Closely examine the weather maps. Do you see any closely-spaced isobars? If you do, but the speaker did not mention them, assign a zero for this component. If there are no closely-spaced isobars anywhere on the map, write “NA” for this component.

WEATHER IN YOUR CHOSEN CITY

Now let’s focus in on weather conditions in [your city] over the last 12 hours.

5) TEMPERATURE IN YOUR CITY

·  As you can see from the first graph, temperature [what did it do?] over the last 12 hours.

·  This is because [explain why the temperature did what it did. Relate it to air masses, wind direction, fronts, day/night, whatever it takes to explain the trend shown on the graph.]

6) DEW POINT IN YOUR CITY

·  Meanwhile, the dew point [what did it do?] over the same time period.

·  Dew points in the range of [give the range of values your city experienced] mean conditions were [tell what kind of conditions: see this link for more info]. [If a continental or maritime air mass moved into your city, how did that affect the dew point? How did it affect the humidity, as shown on the second graph?]

7) BAROMETRIC PRESSURE IN YOUR CITY

·  Over the 12 hour period, the barometric pressure [fell / rose / other—explain].

·  This happened because [explain why. For example, did a High or Low pressure system move towards or away from the area?

8) WIND DIRECTION IN YOUR CITY

·  Wind direction in [city name] during the last 12 hours was from the ___. [Tell the direction and describe any changes throughout the 12 hour period.]

·  This direction was due to [tell why the wind direction was what it was. Maybe in response to HIGH and/or LOW pressure systems in the region?]

9) HOW WIND DIRECTION AFFECTED TEMPERATURE IN YOUR CITY (if at all)

·  Wind coming from the ___ affected the temperature [point back to the graph of temperature] by bringing in [colder/warmer/etc.] air from the ___.

10) SKY COVER IN YOUR CITY

·  And the [HIGH/LOW/other] contributed to the sky cover being [describe the sky cover during your 12 hours].

11) PRECIPITATION IN YOUR CITY
State whether or not it precipitated in your city during the 12 hours. If it rained or snowed, include this:
·  [City name] experienced precipitation from __ to __ [give times]. This was the result of [explain why it rained/snowed].
Note to evaluator: closely examine the maps. If the speaker says there was no precipitation that day, but you have reason to believe that there should have been, question them further!

Thank you for joining us for this weather update.

Tune in next hour for your full forecast.

I’m [your name].

And now, back to our anchor desk!