Weather forecast reading game: what to wear and whether to take an umbrella
A game to learn to really read a weather forecast, not just recognise little drawings of suns and clouds. A situation appears — going to school, a match, walking the dog — with the forecast for that time, and you decide what to take: a coat, a jacket or a T-shirt and, if needed, an umbrella. On easy the forecast is an app card with the temperature and chance of rain. On medium and hard it changes format: sometimes an hourly chart, where only the hours you are out count, and sometimes a moving rain radar, where you work out whether the rain will reach your city. The rules are on screen and each answer is explained with that forecast’s numbers.
Geography · Primary, Secondary, Sixth Form
A 40% chance of rain does not mean it will rain a little; it means rain is less likely than no rain. The game uses a clear rule (umbrella from 50%) and repeats it dozens of times with different values, which is how you learn to read a percentage without thinking.
In the hourly forecast it can rain all morning and not a drop during the three hours you are out. You find your slot on the chart and read only that part: the same skill any maths or science chart requires, but with a consequence that makes sense.
The rain moves at 20 km/h and each map square is 10 km: in an hour it moves two squares. Shifting the patch in your head and seeing which colour lands on your city is a uniform motion problem in disguise, and it is exactly what forecasters do with a real radar.
"Up comes «You have a match from 17:00 to 20:00» with a chart showing 80% rain bars in the morning. Many pick the umbrella on instinct. But between 17:00 and 20:00 the chance of rain never goes above 10%, and the lowest temperature then is 12 °C: the answer is a jacket and no umbrella. The explanation points out exactly that: only the hours you are out count."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Open today’s forecast on a phone or the TV and read it together before leaving home.
Let them decide what to wear and whether to take an umbrella, and say out loud which figure they looked at.
In the evening, check whether the forecast was right and whether the clothes were.
For a whole week, note the forecast and the real temperature each day and see how far off the forecast is.
If you like The Weather, these activities work similar skills:
For the theory side: the layers of the atmosphere, weather versus climate, the greenhouse effect and climate change, with an explanation for every answer.
A thermometer on the window and a measuring jug as a rain gauge. Measuring temperature and rainfall yourself gives meaning to the forecast’s numbers.
National weather services publish their radar online. Watching the colours move on a stormy day is the best follow-up to the game.
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