Some changes in the weather may be a mystery, but there are many questions about the weather that can be answered. Tom Moore, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel, in Atlanta, answered weather questions from curious SN readers. Hurricanes need heat to develop. Before radar, forecasters relied more on observations from hundreds of weather stations around the world, and calculated the speed of storms. Today, radar helps pinpoint severe storms and helps make forecasts more accurate.
Lightning is a huge electric spark in the sky.
Raindrops in clouds break up and reunite when they are jumbled around during rough weather. This jumbling makes the clouds get charged with positive and negative electricity. One reason why it's hot there is that the equator is never far from the direct rays of the sun. On the first day of spring and fall, the sun's rays shine directly on the equator. This means that intense heating occurs at the equator almost all year round.