Sunny's Sad Day

by:Meryl Xiong and Olivia Warren

One cloudy day on earth a storm cloud, or a cirrus cloud, and sun meet. "Ugh, why am I even here?," Stormy complains. "All I do is rain on houses and buildings. What am I good for?" After the storm passes, Sunny wonders "Well, what am I good for?"

The next day a cumulus cloud happens to notice that Sunny very sad. "Sunny, why are you so sad?," the cumulus cloud asks. "I don't know what I am good for.," Sunny says. Then the cumulus cloud, Puffy, tells him "Why Sunny, you're the most important one of all!" "I am?" "Of course you are. Here, I'll show you."

"Earth has an atmosphere that has layers," Puffy starts to explain, "The first layer closest to you, is the thermosphere. Following the thermosphere, are the mesosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. You are so strong that your energy goes through all those layers to reach Earth."

"The heat you give off creates convection currents. On Earth, the higher you are the colder it is," Puffy continued. "Since warm air rises, at the top it cools and the air will sink. This air cycle creates convection currents.""I create all of that?" Sunny questioned. "Yep, but you also do so much more. C'mon. Let's go see my friends, the Windsor family."

"Let's meet the family." Puffy points to each member as he introduces them. "Land Breezes and Sea Breezes are the parents of Doldrums, the twins,Trade Winds and Horse Latitudes, Prevailing Westerlies, and Polar Easterlies. Oh, and don't forget Grandpa Coriolis Effect." "Nice to meet you. I'm Sunny." "Hi Sunny," everyone replied.

"Sunny here is having a problem. He doesn't know what he is good for. I thought you guys could help me by showing what your talents are." Puffy stated. "Well of course, I will start," Sea Breezes began. "During the day, you, Sunny, warm up the land and the sea. Because land heats faster than the sea, the sea's cool air sinks, and land's air rises. When the sea's warm air rises, the land's cool air moves to replace the warm, creating a sea breeze."

"That brings it over to me," Land Breezes said. "When nighttime comes, the opposite happens. Your heat is no longer there. Because the sea cools slower than land, the sea's warm air rises, and the land's cool air sinks. When the sea's warm air rises, the land's cool air moves to replace the warm air, creating a land breeze."

"I want to be next!" Doldrums interrupted. "I am Doldrums. I live near the equator. I am very weak and make calm winds to the people. This happens because your energy heats the cooling air very fast, so strong winds cannot occur. Trade Winds! It's your turn now."

"Okay," Trade Winds started. " I live 30 degrees north of the equator and my sister, Horse Latitudes, lives 30 degrees south of the equator." "We make calm winds with few clouds and little rainfall." Horse Latitudes added.

“ Now to meet the interesting one, I am Prevailing Westerlies. I live between 30 to 60 degrees north and south of equator. I cause strong harsh winds.” Prevailing Westerlies said.

“Prevailing don't brag. Everyone is interesting in there own way. I am Polar Easterlies. I cause cold weather with weak winds. I live near the north and south pole." Polar Easterlies interrupted.

" Grandpa Coriolis Effect wake up!" Prevailing Westerlies yelled. "What? What?" Grandpa Coriolis Effect said as he woke up." Grandpa, Sunny needs you to explain what your talents are." Prevailing Westerlies explained."Oh! Well Sunny, my talent is that when the earth rotates, I cause moving air and water to change direction." Grandpa Coriolis Effect exclaimed.

“Wow. I do all of that? What else do I do? ,” Sunny wondered out loud. Sea Breezes replied, “That’s just the beginning, Sunny. Puffy, take him to see the Currents family in the ocean. They won't talk, but you can show them to Sunny. We cause the ocean currents, and since you cause us, you also cause the ocean currents.” “That sounds like a good idea, Sea Breezes. Thank you for your time.” Puffy said. “No problem Puffy, anytime. Nice meeting you Sunny.”

Puffy led Sunny towards the ocean. On their way, Sunny spots a shape in the sky underneath him. "Puffy, what's that?" Sunny asked. "Hmm? Oh, that's Stratus. He's a stratus cloud. See his layers?" Sunny did. "To the people on the ground, he's usually seen as fog. But to me, he's just sad. Us cumulus clouds usually stay away from them. We are happy and bring clear skies, unlike stratus clouds, ." Puffy explained. "C'mon, we still have a long way to the ocean." Sunny took one last look at Stratus, then hurried to catch up with Puffy.

"Oh! Look it's almost the right temperature for dew point." Puffy exclaims."What is dew point?" Sunny questioned. "Dew point is the temperature at which the water condenses, or turns back into water." Puffy began to explain, "When water evaporates, it becomes water vapor. When it rises high enough, it hits dew point, cools and condenses on smoke, dust, and other particles and forms clouds."

"What do clouds do?" Sunny asked. "Well, we create precipitation." Puffy answered. "Precipitation? What's that?" "Remember how clouds are formed. There are water droplets, and when the cloud gets full, they fall. There are four types: rain, snow, sleet, and hail." Puffy paused. "I'm guessing you want to know what that is too." "Yes please." Sunny replied shyly. "Rain is just water droplets falling. If it is cold enough, the water droplets freeze, becoming ice crystals, and it falls as ice crystals, or snow. Sleet is rain and snow combined. Hail is snow, but bigger, to make an ice ball." Puffy explained.

"Precipitation is formed when the air pressure is low." Puffy continued. Sunny was confused. Puffy saw his expression and resumed speaking, "Air pressure is the weight of the air pushing down on an area. There are two types of air pressure.They are low pressure and high pressure. Air pressure is lower at high altitudes. Picture a stack of books. The bottom book is being "pushed" more than the top one. Less weight is put on the top, so there is less air pressure. Low pressure causes rainy weather and cloudy skies. High pressure cause dry weather with plenty of sunshine from you."

"And I cause all of that too?" Sunny questioned. "Indirectly, precipitation is caused by clouds which are formed by your energy." Puffy responded. "How long until the ocean?" Puffy laughed, "Quite some time. I have an idea. We can go see fronts, they're along the way to the ocean." "What are fronts?" Puffy laughed again, "You're just full of questions aren't you? A front is a boundary between air masses. There are four types."

Puffy led Sunny to a warm place. Puffy began to explain, "This place is warm because a warm front has just passed through, leaving the area humid and warm. A warm front appears when moving warm air meets slow-moving cold air."

Then they traveled to a cool place. "When fast-moving cold air meets slow-moving warm air, a cold front forms. After a cold front passes through, clear skies and cooler temperatures are created."

Their next stop was a rainy town. "This is an occluded front, which caused the rain. An occluded front is created when a warm air mass is caught in between two cold air masses. It's the most complex front."

"This is the last type of front." Sunny looked over the town. The ground was wet, and the air was humid. "When cold and warm air meet, but neither have enough force to move the other, they are stationary, or staying in place. If a stationary front remains over an area, it could bring days of clouds and precipitation. In this town's case, it did."

"This is a weather map." Puffy said. "It shows places of high and low pressure. It also tells you what type of fronts and where they are. Isotherms and isobars can also be shown." "Wait, wait, isotherms? Isobars? What are those?" Sunny exclaimed. "Don't worry Sunny, I'll explain them to you." Puffy reassured.

"Isobars are lines of equal pressure. The closer the lines (isobars), the stronger the winds." Puffy continued. "Isotherms are lines representing equal temperature. Meteorologists, scientists that study the atmosphere, use them to help describe large-scale weather patterns across a certain area."

"Sunny, we will not meet a tornado, but a tornado is when warm moist air from the south meets with cold dry air from the north. It creates a mess in the atmosphere. The warm air rises while the cool air sinks creating a whirlwind that starts from the clouds and goes down to the ground." "So, a tornado is on land?" "Yes, a storm like this on water is called a hurricane. I'll explain that when we get to the ocean.

"We're here," Puffy announced. "It's time to meet the Currents family. You can't really understand them when they talk because of the water, but I'll explain what they do." He gestured to the water. "There are surface currents, which are rivers of water moving through the ocean. As their name suggests, they don't go that deep into the ocean. They are driven by winds, and because of Grandpa Coriolis Effect, currents in the northern hemisphere turn clockwise, and currents in the southern hemisphere turn counter-clockwise. They also affect the climates of coastal areas, acting as a heater and air conditioner." Sunny nodded to signal that he was still listening.

"Deep currents are deeper in the ocean, where they aren't formed by winds, but a temperature and salinity-based system." Puffy explained. "Deep currents are formed when dense salt water sinks beneath less dense cold water. Cold water from the ice caps on the bottom of the ocean, and warm water moving on the top act as a conveyor belt." "Kind of like convection currents, but in the ocean?" Sunny questioned. "I guess you could put it that way." Puffy answered.

"Upwelling is a current in the ocean that brings cold water in the deep ocean, to the surface. It brings nutrients from the bottom of the ocean to the top." Puffy paused."Oh, I almost forgot! The Gulf Stream!" "The Gulf Stream?" Puffy asked? "Yes. It was discovered in the 1500s by Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer." Puffy pointed to a section of the water. "It's located in the North Atlantic Ocean, and flows from Florida toward North Carolina in a northeast direction. It's a warm current because it comes from near the equator."

"Um, earlier you said you would tell me what a hurricane is." Sunny said. "Oh right. A hurricane is a violent wind storm. It only forms near the equator because they use warm, moist air as "fuel". Remember how warm air rises?" Sunny nodded. "When it rises, there is less air near the surface, creating a low pressure area. Air from high pressure areas come to fill the space left from the warm air rising." Puffy checks to make sure that Sunny is listening.

"This "new" air also heats and rises. This cycle keeps repeating to form a hurricane fed by the ocean's heat and evaporating water. As new air keeps swirling to fill the empty area, it creates a spinning column of air. Does that make sense?" Sunny nodded again. "I just can't figure out why I cause that." "Well the evaporation of the water happens because the equator is heated, and the equator is heated because you heat it." Puffy replied.

"Puffy? How do you know all this?" Sunny wondered out loud. Puffy chuckled. "Meteorologists discover this, and I learn from them." "Well, how did they discover it?" "They used instruments to measure things like wind speed and air pressure, and using their measurements, they discover things." "Oh. What instruments do they use?"

"Well there are a few instruments. The barometer measures air pressure. The wind vane shows us the wind direction. The anemometer measures wind speed. A thermometer measures temperature. A hygrometer, or psychrometer, measures the humidity in the air." "Wow, that's a lot of instruments." Sunny remarked. Puffy smiles, "Yes it is."

"It's almost time for me to set, Puffy. Thank you for showing me what I'm good for. I thought that I wasn't good at anything, but you showed me my talents. You turned my sad day into a happy one." "My pleasure, Sunny. Do you remember what happens at night?" Sunny beamed, "At night, there are land breezes." Puffy smiled, "You remember." "And I will never forget."

At that moment, Sunny began to set. "Goodbye Puffy!" Sunny called. "Goodbye Sunny!" Puffy called back. Slowly, Sunny disappeared under the horizon, and Puffy slowly turned away floating aimlessly through the sky. He turned back around and took one last look at the place where Sunny disappeared, and continued floating.