Weather Game

This weather game puts you in charge of the sky. Set the temperature, humidity, wind, air pressure and time of day, and watch the scene turn sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, foggy, frosty or stormy while a little dino grabs a coat, a scarf or an umbrella to match. It is a free, simplified weather science lab for kids and families that runs in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone.

How to play

The game has three parts, picked with the tabs at the top.

• Weather Maker: a sandbox. Drag a slider or tap its + and − buttons to change temperature (−10°C to 35°C, with Fahrenheit too), humidity, wind, air pressure and time of day, and choose to face east or west. The sky reacts right away, and a Why panel explains the science in plain words.
• Challenges: 12 forecaster levels. The dino gives you a target, such as “make it snow”, “fog at dawn” or “a rainbow after rain”, and you must reach it within a move budget. Every slider step or facing switch costs one move, and some levels lock a slider. Reach the goal in the fewest possible moves for 3 stars.
• Forecast Quiz: 8 simple weather maps per round, with highs (H), lows (L), isobars and fronts around the town of Dinoville. Pick the most likely forecast. Score 4, 6 or 8 for one, two or three stars.

Every new kind of weather you make goes into your weather log, which has 15 types to collect. Your stars, best quiz score, log and Weather Maker settings are saved in your browser.

The weather science behind the game

The rules are simplified, but they follow how real weather works:

• Rain needs moisture and cooling. In low pressure, air rises and cools, and the water vapor in humid air condenses into clouds and rain. In the game, rain needs 80% humidity or more plus low pressure.
• Snow needs freezing temperatures: 0°C (32°F) or below. Add a strong wind and you get a blizzard.
• Thunderstorms need warm, humid, rising air, which builds tall storm clouds with lightning and thunder. The dino heads indoors, which is the right thing to do in real life too.
• High pressure means sinking air, which warms and dries as it sinks, so skies tend to stay clear.
• Fog is a cloud at ground level. It forms when the air near the ground is saturated and the wind is calm. A breeze stirs it into a low gray layer of cloud instead.
• Frost forms on clear, calm, freezing nights, when the ground loses heat to space and water vapor turns straight into ice on the grass.
• A rainbow needs the sun behind you and rain in front of you. Sunlight bends and reflects inside the raindrops and splits into colors. The sun also has to be low, so rainbows appear in the morning or late afternoon, not around midday in summer.

Tips

• Read the Why panel. It tells you which ingredient is missing. If humid air is not raining, it usually needs lower pressure to make it rise.
• Watch the sun. It is in the east in the morning and in the west in the evening. Face the other way to see a rainbow in the showers.
• Plan before you move. In Challenges, count the steps each slider needs before you touch anything. Wasted moves cost stars.
• On the maps, H usually means fair weather, L means clouds and rain, and isobars packed close together mean strong wind.

If you like hands-on science, try our science game with its density, circuit and pendulum experiments, or explore the planets in the solar system game.

FAQ

Is this weather game free?

Yes. It is free to play in your browser with no sign-up and no download.

Is the science accurate?

It is simplified for kids, but the cause and effect is real. Real weather also depends on conditions high above the ground, so the game uses easy cut-off values instead.

What do H, L and the lines on a weather map mean?

H marks high pressure and L marks low pressure. The curved lines are isobars, which join places with the same air pressure. A blue line with triangles is a cold front, and a red line with half circles is a warm front.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. Drag the sliders or tap the + and − buttons. On a keyboard, tab to a slider and use the arrow keys, press F to turn around, and use keys 1 to 4 in the quiz.