Starter: What can you remember about the
water cycle?
• In your books bulletpoint the key points of the water cycle.
How does it rain?
Learning Objectives:
• To list the three ways rainfall is created
• To describe how mountains can cause rain
• To explain the difference between a warm and cold airmasses
Key terms:
Frontal
Convectional
Why does it rain?
Relief 1 min - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEddNA
MvCig
Todays lesson uses textbook P.74/75.
Split up your page into 3 sections and
Copy the diagrams of Convection, Relief and Frontal rainfall including notes around the outside.
Convectional Rain Relief Rain Frontal Rain
Diagram.
Written explanation. (How it happens).
Stage 1,2,3 and 4.
Location of where this type of rain is
common/key facts/statistics.
Convection
Hot air… rises
Cold air … sinks
As the hot air rises. It does what?
Stage 1.
Convectional The sun heats the ground and
warm air rises (evaporation).
rain Stage 2
As the air rises it cools and water
vapour condenses to form
clouds.
Stage 3.
When the condensation point is
reached large cumulonimbus
clouds are formed.
Stage 4.
Heavy rain storms occur. These
usually include thunder and
lightening due to the electrical
charge created by unstable
conditions.
Relief
What do we mean by relief in Geography?
‘The highest and lowest points on the land’
Frontal
• To understand the final ‘frontal rainfall’ you need to understand what
a front is.
An air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and water vapor content
The junction between two different air masses is called a front.
A front is associated with a change in the weather.
What happens at fronts?
A warm front means that warm air is coming.
At a warm front, warm air is rising over cold air.
This usually produces clouds and rain.
A cold front means that cold air is coming.
At a cold front, cold air pushes under the warm air.
This produces strong winds and heavy rain.
Plenary – Exam Question:
Describe one process of
rainfall.
Convection
The three main types of
rainfall, all have the same
ending …. How are their
Frontal
beginnings different?
Challenge:
Answer questions 1 – 4 Relief
on page 75.
Explain your answers for
question 2 and 3. Think
about all that you have
learnt from this lesson so
far.
Bringing it back together
Match up the start of the sentences with the correct answer
Climate is… … descends 1
a
b Relief means… … the average weather over a long time 2
c Cold air in frontal rainfall… … climate
3
When heated by the sun, hot air… … rises
d 4
The main type of rainfall found in the UK is … … the weather
e
5
The yearly precipitation is part of the … … the height of the land
f 6
Clouds being formed are part of the… … frontal rainfall
g 7
Command words -“Compare”
looks at the similarities
and the differences
Task: Compare how
rainfall in the UK
changes from January
to July.
“There is more rainfall
in___.
In January, the most
rainfall is in the ___ of
the UK where the
highest rainfall was
___mm
Whereas, in June, the
least rainfall was __”
Success Criteria.
Compass directions
Countries
Connectives
Use the figure (mm)
