Energy from the Sun heats Earth unevenly, causing air movements that result in changing weather patterns.

This set of standards includes both global and local perspectives. From a global point of view, the Sun heats different parts of Earth very unevenly. Equatorial regions receive much more solar energy than polar regions. Wind and water currents distribute large amounts of heat energy from the equator toward the poles. Without this distribution, the polar regions would be much colder and the equatorials regions would be much hotter.

The water cycle provides one significant and often overlooked mechanism for moving heat energy (Standard 4b). When water evaporates it absorbs energy and it cools the local environment (think of the coolness resulting from the evaporation of sweat). When that water precipitates, it releases the same energy as heat. Many residents of locations on Earth experience that temperatures gets warmer when a tropical storm reaches them. Thus, water that evaporates in the tropics and moves toward the poles plays a significant role in global and local weather patterns.

Water also plays a significant role in weather because of its high heat capacity. This term means that it takes more energy to raise the temperature of a given amount of water than for the same amount of earth materials. Similarly, in the absence of heating, a given amount of water will hold its temperature longer than the same amount of earth materials. As a result, large bodies of water have a tempering effect on local weather. They tend to maintain a steady temperature rather than fluctuate from highs to lows.

As in all the strands, these standards can be taught in many ways and in many sequences. The order in which they were written does not imply that they are supposed to be taught in that sequence. The concept map below provides one way to organize these standards. The wording of some of the standards has been slightly changed for space reasons and to emphasize a particular conceptual flow. Foundational concepts have been added as needed.