ROANOKE, Va. – Another popular questions students ask me during school visits is, “How do rainbows form?” The process might seem simple, but it’s actually pretty involved. Your back has to be facing the sun, and you most times will be looking at rain that’s moving away or toward you. Rainbows can be seen when our backs are to the sun and we are looking at rainWhen the sun’s light enters the raindrop, that light gets bent (or refracted). Sun light is reflected back toward youIn some really special cases, you can get a fogbow. You just get a more pronounced “white-ish” color.

ROANOKE, Va. – In order to make a cloud in a jar, you need a few simple things. Make sure you fill it up about halfway with very hot water. Once you do that, take a few ice cubes and put them on top of the jar’s lid. The hot water at the bottom rises into the cooler air from the ice cubes, and condensation begins. However, in order to get a cloud you need to add hairspray.

ROANOKE, Va. – Using baking soda and shaving cream, we attempt to make our own snow. However, we would have done things a little differently. • We would’ve added a little more baking soda. • We should have either a) frozen the mixture or b) frozen the baking soda for an extended period of time before adding the shaving cream. Give this a try, and let us know if it works for you!

ROANOKE, Va. – Recreating the water cycle with your home-schooled students only takes three simple steps. We break them down for you in the video above! If you have any ideas for Weather Homeschool, be sure to send them to me via my contact information below.

ROANOKE, Va. – The weather this past week has been pretty crazy. From temperatures in the 80s to severe storms to high wind and snow, we’ve seen just about everything. This episode of Weather Homeschool shows those clouds, using viewer pictures, and shows us how they form. The three main types that we display here are wall clouds, shelf clouds and mammatus clouds. If you have any weather-related topics that you’d like me to talk about on Weather Homeschool, let me know!

ROANOKE, Va. – Many of us were left asking, “where’s the snow?” this past winter. In episode 5 of Weather Homeschool , we show you why the snow never really happened. We let you know whether or not it can happen in the month of April. Plus, we put your artistic skills and creativity to the test!

ROANOKE, Va. – When I visit schools, I am most often asked about tornadoes and hurricanes. We talked about tornadoes in Episode 2 . Now, we talk about hurricanes. We’ll show you how they form, why they’re named and how you can measure wind with just a few things lying around the house.

ROANOKE, Va. – Episode #3 of Weather Homeschool shows us how hail can form and how big it can grow. We also show you a cool experiment using a hair dryer and ping pong ball. If you have any questions or topics you want Chris to cover, send them here .

ROANOKE, Va. – In Monday’s episode of Weather Homeschool, we show you all you need to know about tornadoes. Plus, we share two experiments that are easy to do at home, while school is still out of session. Have any questions about the weather? Send them here!

ROANOKE, Va. – Earlier in the week, I proposed the idea that we do educational weather videos for students who are currently out of school. The response on Facebook was overwhelming. Without further adieu, here’s Episode 1. Next week, we’ll dive into tornadoes, hurricanes, wind, hail and storms. Be looking out for these videos before Noon each day.