Meteorology Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
Print the sheet (or save it as a PDF from the print window), hand it out, then mark it together using the answer page: every answer is explained. Perfect for a party, a birthday, a classroom, a care home or a team activity.
Name: ………………………………Score: ……… / 20
- Which instrument measures wind speed?
- A. The anemometer
- B. The rain gauge
- C. The seismograph
- D. The thermometer
- What is a tropical cyclone that forms over the North Atlantic called?
- A. A typhoon
- B. A hurricane
- C. A monsoon
- D. A blizzard
- Which scale ranks hurricanes in five categories according to their wind speed?
- A. The Fujita scale
- B. The Mohs scale
- C. The Saffir-Simpson scale
- D. The Celsius scale
- What is the lowest air temperature ever officially recorded on Earth, measured in 1983 at Vostok Station in Antarctica?
- A. -89.2 °C
- B. -67.8 °C
- C. -78.5 °C
- D. -102.0 °C
- What does the climate phenomenon El Niño refer to?
- A. A cooling of the North Atlantic waters
- B. A sandstorm blowing in from the Sahara
- C. An unusual warming of the surface waters of the tropical Pacific
- D. An icy wind blowing over the Alps
- How do hailstones form?
- A. By rain freezing as it falls close to the ground
- B. Inside a cumulonimbus, where updrafts make them grow layer after layer
- C. By snowflakes melting above the oceans
- D. By moisture in the air condensing on frozen ground
- What did the word "monsoon", from Arabic, originally mean?
- A. Season
- B. Storm
- C. Cloud
- D. Ocean
- What shape does a large falling raindrop really have?
- A. A tear pointed upwards
- B. A perfect sphere
- C. A small patty flattened underneath, like a hamburger bun
- D. A cube
- What is the characteristic smell of dry earth when it starts to rain called?
- A. Ozonite
- B. Petrichor
- C. Geosmosis
- D. Terroir
- Every 2 February in the United States, which animal is supposed to predict whether winter will last six more weeks, depending on whether or not it sees its shadow?
- A. A bear
- B. A beaver
- C. A squirrel
- D. A groundhog
- Where does the French word 'canicule' (heatwave) come from?
- A. From the Greek 'kanos', 'oven'
- B. From the Occitan 'canic', 'drought'
- C. From the Latin 'canicula', 'little dog', a name given to the star Sirius
- D. From the name of an Italian scientist, Canicci
- Why did snow turn orange in the Alps and Pyrenees several times, notably in 2021 and 2022?
- A. Because of Saharan sand carried by the wind
- B. Because of red algae
- C. Because of industrial pollution
- D. Because of a volcanic eruption
- How can the 'rains of frogs' or fish observed throughout history be explained?
- A. Waterspouts suck up animals and drop them further away
- B. Birds dropping them
- C. A baseless legend
- D. Villagers' pranks
- What is the official heat record in France, measured on 28 June 2019 in the Hérault?
- A. 41.2 °C
- B. 50.5 °C
- C. 38.8 °C
- D. 46.0 °C
- What are 'March showers' (giboulées de mars) in French weather lore?
- A. The first spring heat
- B. Brief, sudden showers, sometimes of hail, between sunny spells
- C. River floods
- D. Late frosts
- What are the bright 'false suns' that sometimes appear on either side of the Sun called?
- A. Auroras
- B. Sun dogs (parhelia)
- C. Mirages
- D. Eclipses
- Which instrument measures the amount of rain that has fallen?
- A. The rain gauge
- B. The anemometer
- C. The barometer
- D. The heliograph
- In meteorology, what is a "depression"?
- A. A very deep valley
- B. A low-pressure area, often bringing cloudy, unsettled weather
- C. A dry spell
- D. Low spirits caused by winter
- Which cold, dry north-westerly wind blows over Languedoc and Roussillon in France, a cousin of the mistral?
- A. The tramontane
- B. The sirocco
- C. The foehn
- D. The chinook
- What is the difference between weather and climate?
- A. None, they are synonyms
- B. Weather concerns oceans, climate continents
- C. Weather describes conditions over a few days, climate the averages over at least 30 years
- D. Climate only concerns temperatures
Answer key — Meteorology Quiz
- A. The anemometerThe anemometer measures wind speed, usually in kilometres per hour or knots, while the wind vane shows its direction.
- B. A hurricaneThe same phenomenon has three names: hurricane in the North Atlantic and northeast Pacific, typhoon in the northwest Pacific, and cyclone in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific.
- C. The Saffir-Simpson scaleThe Saffir-Simpson scale runs from category 1 to category 5 (sustained winds of at least 252 km/h, or 157 mph); the Fujita scale, by contrast, rates tornadoes.
- A. -89.2 °COn 21 July 1983, Vostok Station, at about 3,500 m above sea level, recorded -89.2 °C, the official record of the World Meteorological Organization.
- C. An unusual warming of the surface waters of the tropical PacificThe name, "the Christ Child", comes from Peruvian fishermen who noticed this warming around Christmas; it returns roughly every two to seven years and disrupts rainfall and temperatures worldwide.
- B. Inside a cumulonimbus, where updrafts make them grow layer after layerInside a cumulonimbus, powerful updrafts carry water droplets very high, where they freeze and gain a new layer of ice on each trip up; the largest hailstone measured in the United States, at Vivian, South Dakota in 2010, was 20…
- A. SeasonThe word comes from the Arabic "mawsim", meaning "season": it described the seasonal winds of the Indian Ocean that pushed ships towards India on the way out and brought them back on the return.
- C. A small patty flattened underneath, like a hamburger bunThe 'teardrop' shape in drawings is a myth. Small drops are spherical; larger ones are flattened by air resistance, then break into several drops if they grow beyond about 5 mm.
- B. PetrichorThe word was coined in 1964 by two Australian researchers. The smell comes notably from geosmin, produced by soil bacteria, which our nose detects in tiny concentrations, on the order of a tablespoon in an Olympic swimming pool.
- D. A groundhogThe most famous one, Punxsutawney Phil, is the star of a big festival in Pennsylvania, immortalised by the film 'Groundhog Day'.
- C. From the Latin 'canicula', 'little dog', a name given to the star SiriusIn Antiquity, Sirius, a star in the constellation Canis Major (the Great Dog), rose with the Sun during the great summer heat.
- A. Because of Saharan sand carried by the windSoutherly winds lift tonnes of Saharan dust that falls with precipitation.
- A. Waterspouts suck up animals and drop them further awayA waterspout, a kind of tornado over water, can lift small light animals and carry them for kilometres.
- D. 46.0 °CIt was recorded at Vérargues, near Montpellier, smashing the previous 2003 record.
- B. Brief, sudden showers, sometimes of hail, between sunny spellsIn spring, cold air aloft passes over warming ground: clouds form quickly and burst into showers before the sun returns.
- B. Sun dogs (parhelia)They are caused by light refracting through plate-shaped ice crystals high in the sky.
- A. The rain gaugeIt collects water in a graduated container. Readings are in millimetres: 1 mm equals 1 litre per square metre.
- B. A low-pressure area, often bringing cloudy, unsettled weatherAir rises there, cools and forms clouds. Conversely, an anticyclone (high pressure) brings settled weather.
- A. The tramontaneIts name comes from the Italian "tramontana", "beyond the mountains".
- C. Weather describes conditions over a few days, climate the averages over at least 30 yearsA mild winter does not contradict climate, and a cold day does not disprove warming: they are different time scales.