Year 8 are learning why depressions bring wet, windy weather to the UK. On a day when a depression is approaching from the Atlantic, the teacher opens Windy on the board, starting with the wind layer: thousands of moving lines show air spiralling anticlockwise into the low and clockwise out of the high pressure nearby. The teacher then switches to the pressure layer to show the isobars packed tightly around the low, then to the rain layer to show the bands of rain along the fronts, and plays the forecast forward over two days so students watch the system cross the country. Students watch without controlling the map and sketch the low, the wind directions and the rain belt in their books. They then compare their sketch with the synoptic chart in their textbook and explain why so much of the UK's rain arrives from the west.
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