The Weather

Level: Upper-Intermediate

What is so special about the weather?

• English speakers love to talk about the weather. It is a way of breaking the ice (starting a conversation). People talk about the weather on the phone and in person. Friends and family talk about the weather before they discuss what's new. Co-workers talk about the weather before starting a hard day of work. Even strangers discuss the weather. Learn the proper vocabulary and expressions, and you will find it easy to start a conversation anytime and anywhere with anyone you meet!

Preparatory task.

• Answer the following questions:1) What's your favorite season and why?

2) Are there any special traditions associated with different seasons in your country?

3) Have you ever been caught in bad weather? If so, what did you do?

4) Do you have many disasters in you country which are caused by weather?

5)Does weather influence your mood?

Study the words.

Avalanche - a dangerous slide of snow down a mountain.Blizzard - a storm with lots of snow and wind.Chilly – cold.Drizzling - raining slightly.Drought - a long period with no rainfall.Flood - overflow of rain water.Frostbite - a skin condition caused by over exposure to the

cold .Lightning - electric flash caused by two clouds hitting.Rainbow - a band of colours found in the sky after a rainfall.Slush - snow on the ground that has been rained on.Smog - heavy, dark cloud cover caused by pollution.

Watch the video and answer the questions.

• http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002980095/californias-extreme-drought-explained.html

1) How much rainfall has California had this year?

2) What are the consequences of the draught?

3) What is the other natural disaster California is suffering from?

4) What is to be done to fight with draught?

Compare the two pictures.

Look at the graph and answer the questions.

• 1) What does this graph show?

• 2) What is the relation between the rise in temperature CO2 concentration?

• 3) When did the greatest increase in t happen?

• 4) Why did the temperature began to rise?

Read the text and fill in the table.

The traditional formula on climate change that says that regions that have a moist climate will experience additional rainfall is no longer valid, scientists say.

The old formula that dry gets drier and wet gets wetter (DDWW) is less universally valid than previously assumed, stressed a team of climate researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) in Zurich.

“Our results emphasise how we should not overly rely on simplifying principles to asses past developments in dryness and humidity. This can be misleading, as it cannot do justice to the complexity of the underlying systems,” said Peter Greve from ETHZ and the lead author of the study.

Traditional analyses using metrics could describe climate characteristics above the ocean, but not over land.

In their new study, ETHZ researchers led by co-author Sonia Seneviratne, a professor for land-climate dynamics, took into account the specific climatic properties of land surfaces where the amount of available water is limited compared with the ocean.

For the study, they compared data from between 1948 and 1968 and 1984 to 2004 which allowed them to extract trends in terms of a region’s humidity and dryness.

They found that there was no obvious trend towards a drier or wetter climate across three-quarters of the land and only half of this surface area follows the DDWW principle.

Some regions which should have become wetter according to the simple DDWW formula have actually become drier in the past — this includes parts of the Amazon, Central America, tropical Africa and Asia, found the team.

However, the DDWW principle does still apply to the oceans, concluded the study that appeared in the journal Nature .

Question Answer ( True/ False/ Non stated)

The formula on climate change is still valid

DDWW stands for Drought –durt-wildlife-wind

Metrics analyses couldn’t describe climate over land.

The new study is based on climate properties of flatlands.

In the course of the study the data from 1948 to 2004 were analyzed.

Central America and Asia should have become drier.

Fill in the gaps with the words needed.

• The airplane couldn't take-off because of the _________.

• On a _____ night you can see a lot of stars.

• Forest fires are a serious danger during a _______.

• The _______ was so bad, our basement was full of water.

• Bring lots of water and wear a hat to avoid _______ in this weather.

• The roads are ______so please avoid driving down any hills.

icy blizzard

drought

flood

starry

heatstroke

rainbow climate

Useful tips.

• This is the formula used to count the world emission of CO2.

• What might be the consequences of excessive gas emissions?

• What shall one do to stop it?

• Count how much gas you emit!!

Homework.

1) Find a video about the weather or climate, watch it and summarise it.

2) Write an essay on the following topic :” What can I do to stop climate from changing?”

Thank you for your attention.