The Sky Above You Trivia Quiz

These threatening looking storm clouds are called cumulonimbus and are often called thunderclouds in everyday language. They are tall clouds, with the base lying close to the ground and extending high up into the troposphere, sometimes for thousands of feet.

If you see a cloud like this, be prepared for extreme weather which can include thunderstorms, hail and sometimes even tornadoes.

The name of monsoon comes from an Arabic word meaning 'season' and the name is apt as monsoons are seasonal storms, particularly associated with tropical regions. The countries affected normally have two seasons, wet and dry, and the change is brought about by winds changing direction.

The heavy rain which monsoons bring can cause extensive flooding, which may lead to people dying, but the water is needed for growing crops. Monsoons are mainly associated with Asian countries, such as India and Bangladesh, but countries like Australia and some of those in Africa also have these rains.

Hail is frozen ice which falls in balls, called hailstones, or just as pieces of ice. The hailstones are formed when drops of water move to the tops of clouds where the temperature means they freeze. The clouds can hold them for a time, during which the hailstones grow bigger and heavier. Once they are too heavy for the cloud to support them they fall to the ground in a hailstorm.

Getting caught in a hailstorm can be painful - I've had to shield my dog on occasions when hail has started falling during a walk.

A sandstorm, or dust storm depending on where it happens, is caused when strong winds pick up dry sand and dirt and carry it into different areas. Sandstorms are common in the deserts of Africa, Arabia and Asia with the sand being deposited hundreds of miles away.

The USA has also suffered severe dust storms, particularly during the 1930s when soil from the prairies was blown through the air. The loss of land for growing crops caused severe economic damage.

Thunderstorms are a mixture of electric sparks in the atmosphere, the lightning seen in the photo, and thunder, which is caused by the heating of the air which the lightning has created. We see lightning first, because light travels faster than sound, but thunder lasts longer as it has to travel through all the different areas of heat caused by the lightning. The rumble of thunder is due to the changes in temperature in the layers of the atmosphere.

Of course, thunderstorms usually mean very heavy rain too, so it's best to be safely indoors when they occur.

Tornadoes are violent, twisting columns of air which can form during thunderstorms. The strength of the winds causes a lot of damage to anything the tornado hits and the rotation lifts cars and mobile homes into the air before smashing them back onto the ground.

North America suffers from tornadoes, with central areas being called 'Tornado Alley', but they can form anywhere. Even the UK has occasional tornadoes, although they are not usually as destructive as those in America.

You might think that a long spell of hot weather can only be a good thing, not classed as bad weather, but a heatwave can be just as big a problem as stormy weather. A heatwave is a period during which the temperatures are higher than expected and which lasts for more than a few days.

Among the problems are humans suffering from being unable to cool down, a lack of water, a risk of fires starting in dry woodland or grassland and drought causing crops to wither and die. The picture shows what can happen to plants when the weather is too hot and dry. Prolonged heat and lack of water can lead to famine, when there is not enough food for everyone who needs it.

Those trees in the background are very difficult to see because of the dense fog which surrounds them. Fog is really clouds which have come right down to the level of the ground. It is made up of minute drops of water. The thicker the fog, the harder it is to see.

Fog can be very dangerous for traffic, like cars, as drivers can't see what is in front of them. At sea, ships can't see hazards either and could collide and sink. Fog mixed with smoke is called smog while mist is a less dense form of fog.

A blizzard is a form of snow storm which is very heavy and is combined with strong winds. The density of the snow and the driving winds, and the fact that they usually last for several hours, makes them dangerous to human life. It's the wind that turns a snowstorm into a blizzard.

Blizzards can create a situation called a whiteout, which means anyone caught in one cannot work out where they are in relation to danger, like roads or cliff tops. They may also become disorientated and walk in the wrong direction, creating the risk of freezing to death.

Hurricanes are very strong winds and are also known as cyclones or typhoons depending on where they form. Hurricanes, like Hurricane Katrina (in the photo) which hit the USA in 2005, form in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. They develop around an area of low pressure, called the eye of the storm, which you can see in the middle of the picture.

Apart from the damage caused by the strength of the winds, storm surges are a big danger with hurricanes. These occur when a wall of sea water crashes onto the land causing extensive flooding, damaging property and drowning people who live near the coast.