“Watery Weather” rains down fun

Rain, snow, sleet, hail, evaporation, condensation, precipitation! How many different ways do water and the weather interact? Visitors to the “Watery Weather” Family Exploration program at Explorit Science Center on Saturday will get a chance to meet weather experts as well as explore connections between water and weather. The event will run from 1-4 p.m. and is free with paid admission to the museum.

Meteorologists from the National Weather Service in Sacramento will educate visitors about the weather using demonstrations and hands-on experiments. There will also be a slide-show presentation on hurricanes and climate change that will run throughout the event. A hurricane expert will be available to answer questions about this topic.

One highlight of the hands-on demonstrations will be a look at orographic precipitation –how precipitation events interact with mountain ranges. This will show why the leeward (downwind) side of mountains is drier than the windward side.

In addition, visitors can check out Explorit’s “Go With the Flow, From Delta to Sea” exhibit, which will run through June 9. In this exhibit, visitors can see the effect that rain has on distributing pollution through a watershed. They can even touch a “cloud.”

You can try the following “Cloud in a Jar” activity at home to see how clouds form:

• Think It
Clouds form when warm, moist air rises and cools, causing the water vapor in the air to condense. Clouds need some small particles of matter to be present in the air for them to attach onto – these are called cloud condensation nuclei. These can be things like sea salt, dust, pollution or smoke.

• Try It
Please use adult supervision and assistance when working with matches and hot water.

Materials: Glass jar with a lid, hot water, ice, a match, a piece of dark paper.

1. Fill the jar about 1 inch high with the hot water. Swirl the water slightly to warm the sides of the jar.

2. Turn the lid upside-down, and place some ice in it. Set the lid on top of the jar. You may notice some condensation (water droplets) on the inside of the jar, but should not see a cloud form yet.

3) An adult can light a match, blow it out and drop it inside the jar. Quickly replace the cover, and watch closely to see the cloud form. You can put the piece of dark paper behind the jar to see the cloud more clearly.

• Explorit:
The warm moist air rising from the hot water cools as it approaches the ice in the lid. However, a cloud can’t form without some particles for the water to condense onto. The smoke from the match provides those particles. When you drop the match in, the water in the air is able to attach and condense onto the particles of smoke, creating the cloud you see. What does your cloud feel like? What else could you use to make a cloud? Why do you think clouds eventually start to precipitate (rain)?

Be sure to stop by the “Watery Weather” Family Exploration to learn even more.

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Explorit Science Center has two exhibitions running: “Go with the Flow… From Delta to Sea,” sponsored by the Monsanto Fund and the Teichert Foundation; and “Move It! Science in Action,” sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, the Hance Family and Northrop Grumman. Admission is $4 general, free for age 3 and under. The museum is open from 2-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Explorit is at 2801 Second Street, Davis. For more information: (530) 756-0191 or www.explorit.org