A hurricane from above and on the ground.Look through the gallery below and see if you can spot the following: The most rain to fall in a week ever recorded was 5 metres вЂ“ enough to cover a lorry! It fell on Reunion Island in 2007.It takes 8 minutes for sunlight to reach the Earth from the Sun.The coldest temperature ever recorded was -89В° Celsius in AntarcticaВ in 1983.The official highest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 56.7вЊ, measured in July 1913 at Greenland Ranch, Death Valley, California, USA.The fastest wind ever recorded in the UK was 142mph on the 13th February 1989 in Scotland вЂ“ thatвЂ™s over twice as fast as a cheetah can run!.The biggest snowflake ever recorded was 38cm wide and 20cm thick.The worldвЂ™s highest weather station is on the top pf Mount Everest.The energy in this could keep a lightbulb lit for 3 months! A lightning bolt can be hotter than the sun вЂ“ 30,000 degrees Celsius.There are ten different types of cloud (Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Altostratus, Nimbostratus, Stratocumulus, Stratus, Cumulus, Cumulonimbus).Climate change is a huge, long-term shift in weather patterns and average temperatures on Earth.

Snowflakes have six sides and can be formed of 200 ice crystals.

Snowflakes are formed in clouds when water vapour freezes around a tiny piece of dirt in the air and becomes so heavy that it falls to the ground.

It is this heating up of the air that causes the thundering noise. It occurs when electricity made inside a cloud shoots towards the ground as lightning and heats the air.

Thunder is one of the loudest noises in nature.

The clouds are made up of droplets of water or tiny bits of ice, which fall as rain or hail, or sleet or snow, when the air around the cloud warms up.

Clouds are formed when damp air moves upwards, then cools down.

A south westerly wind is blowing in from the south west.

We describe the direction of winds in terms of where they are coming from.

When warm weather is вЂdampвЂ™, or humid it means that the air has a lot of water, or moisture, trapped inside it. It has also damaged the ozone layer which protects us from damaging UV rays from the sun. This has gradually warmed the earth over the past few decades, causing some of the polar ice caps to start melting. Pollution from factories and vehicles has led to what is called the greenhouse effect.

Human activity can affect the weather.

The Earth spins as it moves around the Sun as different parts of it are closer to or further away from the Sun and receive more or less sunlight, we experience spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Different seasons have different weather patterns.

There are five different classifications of climate: polar, cold, temperate, dry and tropical.

The average weather for a region is called its climate.

The warmth of our Sun drives currents in the atmosphere: they carry air and moisture around our planet, creating our climate and our weather.

A temperate climate is one that is not too extreme. The UK has what is called a вЂtemperateвЂ™ climate. Some countries are warm all year round, while others are cold all year round. Winters tend to be colder and have more rain, sleet, hail and snow, while summer tends to be warmer and sunnier.

We call the general weather trends and the extremes of weather in one place a вЂclimateвЂ™. The weather changes regularly and tends to be different during different seasons and across different countries. It includes the outside temperature, strength of the wind, and whether it is raining, sunny, hailing, snowing, sleeting, foggy, or cloudy.

Weather is the way the air and the atmosphere feels. What is weather and how does it differ around the world?

Easy weather graph for children