1 – Vocabulary

From Typhoon Hato, in Hong Kong and South China at the end of August, to hurricanes Harley, Irma, Jose, and Maria in the Carribean Sea in September, there has been a lot of talk these past few weeks about severe – even extreme – weather. But do you know the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon? Do you know the definition of a tornado, a waterspout, or a gustnado?  

  Let’s find out here: severe weather  

2 – Wordsearch

Find the following words: blizzard, cyclone, funnel cloud, gustnado, haboob, hail, hurricane, lightning, microburst, monsoon, sandstorm, squall line, thunderstorm, tornado, typhoon, waterspout, windshear, in this grid: severe weather wordsearch. Pick out the words from left to right, top line to bottom line. Words can go horizontally, vertically and diagonally in all eight directions. When you are done, the unused letters in the grid will spell out a hidden message.   Read more about these phenomena on Eurocontrol’s Skybrary Weather Portal.  

3 – Listening comprehension

Watch the You Tube video « Anatomy of a Hurricane », preferably without turning on the subtitles, and answer these questions: – When do hurricanes that impact the US develop? – In the Northern Hemisphere, how do cloud masses rotate? Why? – What immediately surrounds the eye of a hurricane? – When does a hurricane die? – Name some of the by-products of a hurricane  

4 – Grammar: How

Let’s delve into the mystery of asking questions with “How”, a very useful three-letter word! – Use How to introduce questions: How was your flight? How do you do that? – Use How to get information about numbers and quantities, for example to find out about age, size, length, … : how old, how long, how big, how often? – Use How much to ask about cost. Also use How much with uncountable nouns. – Use How many to ask about countable nouns. – Use How in exclamations before adjectives, adverbs and verb phrases: How nice! How odd! How funny! – Use How about + noun phrase and How about + -ing form in informal speech to make suggestions: how about going to the movies? Let’s check your understanding with this short exercise.  

5 – Further reading

A hundred years ago this month, on September 11^th 1917, the WWI flying ace Georges Guynemer disappeared during a mission over Belgium. His death was officially announced on September 25^th.     Read more about Georges Guynemer at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guynemer and answer these questions: – How old was he when he died? – How many victories did he achieve over enemy planes? – How was his aircraft called? – Where is it kept now? – What mottos is he famous for?