Thousands Of Students Attend CBS4 Weather Day
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Nearly 10,000 students from across South Florida attended the 8th annual CBS4 Weather Day Wednesday prior to the Miami Marlins vs. New York Mets game at Marlins Park.
Elementary and middle school students from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were on hand as part of the fun-filled, science-focused educational field trip.
CBS4 Chief Meteorologist David Bernard, along with Meteorologists Craig Setzer, Jeff Berardelli and Lissette Gonzalez hosted the event from the field.
The pre-game program is designed to teach kids some basic concepts of weather and climate and how these topics relate to living in South Florida.
GALLERY: CBS4 WEATHER DAY 2013
The students learned about thunderstorms, lightning, tornadoes and hurricanes, as well as Marlins; not the baseball players but the real fish.
A marine biologist from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science spoke to the kids about the fish and why it's so important to conserve them. Marlin is extremely popular with fishermen due to their size and he spoke about conservation efforts to save the Marlin for generations to come.
Lissette Gonzalez talked to the kids about weather balloons which measure air pressure, temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity.
Jeff Berardelli had the honor of reminding students that Florida is the lightning capital of the U.S. and with the start of rainy season just about here that also means it's the start of lightning season.
Jeff spoke to an expert from the National Weather Service who showed off one of his cool toys, a tornado simulator, to demonstrate what one looks like on a very small scale.
Craig Setzer then spoke about hurricanes. Hurricane season starts June 1, and runs through November 30th. Two experts from the National Hurricane Center's research division were on hand to talk to the students about hurricanes and also showed off some of their cool, high-tech gadgets which are used to measure the strength of a storm. One instrument was a dropsonde, which is dropped out of a hurricane hunter plane directly into a storm. It measures pressure, temperature and wind speed of a storm as it drops into the ocean. They also showed off a drone or smartsonde. The drone is actually a small plane that is dropped from the hurricane hunter plane and flies through the storm taking important weather measurements which help meteorologists forecast a storm.
CBS4 Weather Day has been officially approved by all three South Florida school districts and complies with Florida's Science standards.
Weather Day is a collaborative effort of CBS4, the Miami Marlins, the National Weather Service, and Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county public schools.
The students who attend CBS4 Weather Day are invited to stay for the Marlins v. Mets game where CBS4's Craig Setzer threw out of the first pitch.
