Check Out These Dry Weather and Drought Activities!
Look for signs of drought by putting together these jigsaw puzzles.
Play the Tip Tank matching game for tips about how to conserve water.
Click on any part of this interactive house to learn how to save water at home.
Learn more about saving water with the Water Wisdom word puzzle and matching game.
Become a super sleuth by playing Mission: H2O.
Play Smokejumper to help firefighters put out forest fires.
Featured Activity:
Measuring Precipitation
Meteorologists measure precipitation (rain, freezing rain, snow, sleet, and hail) by collecting it with a tool called a rain gauge. By comparing how much precipitation they actually get with how much they expect to get (the average), they can tell whether the weather is drier than normal, and if they might be entering into a drought. This information helps farmers, firefighters, and others to prepare for drought and possible wildfires.
What You Need
- A clear, 1-liter plastic soda bottle
- Scissors
- Permanent marker
- Ruler
- Small pebbles or gravel
- Water
What To Do:
- Cut off the top (slanted) part of the bottle, so you’re left with a tall bottom piece with straight sides.
- Fill the curved bottom part with pebbles or gravel until the bottom surface is flat and even. These will help weigh down your rain gauge so it won’t blow away.
- Slowly pour water into the bottle until the pebbles are covered. Using the marker, draw a line at the surface of the water. Place a “0″ next to the line.
- Starting from “0″, use the ruler and marker to mark ½ inch, 1 inch, 1 ½ inch, etc., up the side of the bottle.
- When rain or snow is predicted in the weather forecast, fill the bottle up to the “0″ line with water, and place it outside to catch the precipitation.
- After the rain stops, measure and record how much you collected. If you have snow or sleet in your rain gauge, wait for it to melt into liquid before measuring it. Pour out the water after you are done taking your measurement.
- You may want to keep track of precipitation over the entire month. Then, calculate the average amount of precipitation you collected and compare it to the average amount meteorologists expected for the month. You can find out how much precipitation your city or town is expected to get by clicking here.
Thanks to the Monroe Country Water Authority for this fun activity.
Photo: A withered soybean plant on a farm in Arkansas during the drought of 1988. By Ron Nichols. Photo courtesy USDA National Resources Conservation Service.