The Sun makes our weather. It heats up some parts of our world more and some less. Combined with the Earth's rotation this makes the Earth unequally heated. This unequal heating drives our weather. If someone were to ask you : "What makes weather?"; you could truthfully tell them, "The Sun".

The heat of the Sun varies because the Sun both rotates on its axis and moves with the Milky Way Galaxy. This contributes to adverse weather conditions such as hurricanes, tornadoes, rain, blizzards of snow, thunderstorms, lightening strikes, droughts, ocean temperature fluctuations, volcanic eruptions, and more. Depending on the season and where you live the Sun provides you with varying amounts of light and heat. This means that we can have snow in Alaska while you have sweltering heat in India.

Changes of only a half of 1% in the Sun's intensity have had large effects on weather patterns. The annual growth rings of trees between 1640 and 1715 reveal that a 75 year cold spell occurred. This period of time was directly connected with a 75 year decrease in sunspot activity.

Today scientists suspect that increased sunspot activity is responsible for the condition in the Pacific Ocean called El Nino. El Nino is an increase in the water temperature that results in increased storm activity along the western coast of the United States as well as many other weather patterns.

Hurricanes

   

©Copyright 1998 Elizabeth Beckett, Holly Bernitt, and Vishwa Chandra.