Weather and clouds quiz
Checked on 11 November 2026
Question 1 of 10
Discover
Which instrument measures air pressure?
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The answer is Barometer.
A barometer measures atmospheric pressure, and a falling reading often hints that the weather is about to change.
Discover
Which instrument measures wind speed?
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The answer is Anemometer.
An anemometer measures how fast the wind blows, often with little cups that spin in the breeze.
Discover
Fog is best described as what?
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The answer is A cloud at or near the ground.
Fog is made of tiny water droplets hanging in the air near the surface, so it is really a low-lying cloud.
Discover
When you see a rainbow made by sunlight, where is the Sun?
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The answer is Behind you.
A sunlit rainbow always appears in the part of the sky opposite the Sun, so the Sun must be at your back.
Practise
Thin, wispy cirrus clouds high in the sky are made mostly of what?
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The answer is Ice crystals.
Cirrus clouds float so high and cold that they are made almost entirely of ice crystals.
Practise
The cloud name cumulus comes from a Latin word meaning what?
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The answer is Heap.
Cumulus means heap or pile in Latin, a good fit for these lumpy, piled-up clouds.
Practise
Which tall, towering cloud type brings thunderstorms?
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The answer is Cumulonimbus.
Cumulonimbus clouds, nicknamed thunderheads, grow tall enough to bring heavy rain, lightning and thunder.
Expert
In which year did Francis Beaufort devise his famous wind force scale?
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The answer is 1805.
Francis Beaufort of the British Royal Navy created his scale in 1805 to help sailors judge the wind by eye.
Expert
The main jet streams flow near which boundary in the atmosphere?
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The answer is The tropopause.
Jet streams race along near the tropopause, the boundary between the troposphere and the calm stratosphere above it.
Expert
In cloud names such as nimbostratus, what does nimbus mean?
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The answer is Rain.
Nimbus comes from the Latin word for rain, so nimbo clouds are the ones that bring precipitation.