About this puzzle
Weather is the one science topic every kid has firsthand experience with, and this list builds on that. It moves from everyday conditions like fog, frost, and drizzle to the dramatic stuff, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and hail, then adds the tools and ideas forecasters rely on: the barometer, the thermometer, humidity, and the jet stream.
Teachers can use this weather word search to introduce vocabulary at the start of a unit or as a review before a test. It also makes a good indoor activity on a stormy day, when the real thing is rattling the windows. The notes give a clear definition for each word along with a memorable fact, like the trick for estimating how far away lightning struck.
The 32 words in this puzzle
Every word, with a short note. Handy for teaching the vocabulary before or after solving.
In every version (12)
- Cloud
- A cloud is made of billions of tiny water droplets or ice crystals floating in the air. Clouds form when rising air cools and its water vapor condenses.
- Fog
- Fog is a cloud that forms at ground level. It appears when air near the surface cools enough for its water vapor to condense into tiny droplets.
- Hail
- Hailstones grow inside strong thunderstorms as updrafts carry them up and down, adding layers of ice. A hailstone that fell in South Dakota in 2010 measured 8 inches across.
- Hurricane
- A hurricane is a tropical cyclone with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour. The same kind of storm is called a typhoon in the western Pacific.
- Lightning
- A lightning bolt can heat the air around it to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Count the seconds between flash and thunder, then divide by five, to estimate the distance in miles.
- Puddle
- A puddle forms when rain falls faster than the ground can soak it up. After the storm passes, puddles slowly shrink as their water evaporates back into the air.
- Rainbow
- A rainbow forms when sunlight bends and reflects inside raindrops, splitting into colors. To see one, the sun has to be behind you, and red is always on the outside of the arc.
- Snow
- Snow forms when water vapor in a cold cloud freezes into ice crystals that clump into flakes. On average, about ten inches of fresh snow melts down to roughly one inch of water.
- Sunshine
- Sunshine warms Earth's surface unevenly, and that uneven heating drives the wind and most of our weather. Sunlight takes about eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth.
- Tornado
- A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that touches the ground. The United States has more tornadoes than any other country.
- Umbrella
- Umbrellas keep off the rain, but the earliest ones, in places like ancient China and Egypt, were mostly sunshades. The word traces back to the Latin umbra, meaning shade.
- Wind
- Wind is air moving from areas of higher pressure toward areas of lower pressure. Winds are named for the direction they come from, so a north wind blows from the north.
Added in Medium and Hard (8)
- Blizzard
- A blizzard is defined by wind and visibility, not just snowfall. It needs strong winds and blowing snow that cut visibility below a quarter mile for at least three hours.
- Breeze
- A breeze is a gentle wind. On sunny days near the coast, a sea breeze often blows in the afternoon from the cooler water toward the warmer land.
- Drizzle
- Drizzle is light precipitation made of very small drops, less than half a millimeter across. It usually falls from low, flat stratus clouds.
- Flood
- A flood happens when water spills onto land that is normally dry. Flash floods can rise in minutes, which is why forecasters warn people never to drive through flooded roads.
- Forecast
- A forecast is a prediction of upcoming weather. Meteorologists build forecasts from satellites, radar, weather balloons, and computer models of the atmosphere.
- Frost
- Frost forms when surfaces cool below freezing and water vapor turns straight into ice crystals without becoming liquid first.
- Sleet
- In the US, sleet means raindrops that freeze into ice pellets before hitting the ground. Freezing rain is different: it falls as liquid and freezes on contact.
- Thunderstorm
- Thunderstorms grow from tall cumulonimbus clouds. Every thunderstorm produces lightning, because thunder is simply the sound that lightning makes.
Added in Hard (12)
- Barometer
- A barometer measures air pressure. Falling pressure often signals that clouds and storms are on the way. Evangelista Torricelli invented the mercury barometer in 1643.
- Cirrus
- Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds high in the sky, made of ice crystals. Their name is Latin for a curl of hair, and they can be an early sign of changing weather.
- Cold Front
- A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler air mass. As it pushes in, it lifts warm air quickly, often setting off thunderstorms followed by cooler, drier weather.
- Cumulus
- Cumulus clouds are the puffy, cotton-ball clouds of fair weather. Their name is Latin for heap, and they can grow into towering storm clouds on hot afternoons.
- Drought
- A drought is a long stretch of below-normal rain or snow that leads to water shortages. Droughts can last for months or even many years.
- Humidity
- Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. High humidity makes hot days feel hotter because sweat evaporates more slowly from your skin.
- Jet Stream
- Jet streams are narrow bands of very fast wind high in the atmosphere that generally blow from west to east. They steer storms and can shorten eastbound flights.
- Monsoon
- A monsoon is a seasonal shift in wind direction that brings a rainy season. South Asia's summer monsoon supplies much of the region's yearly rainfall.
- Radar
- Weather radar sends out radio waves that bounce off raindrops, snowflakes, and hail. The returning signal shows forecasters where precipitation is falling and how heavy it is.
- Temperature
- Temperature measures how hot or cold the air is. The highest air temperature officially recorded on Earth is 134 degrees Fahrenheit, at Death Valley, California, in 1913.
- Thermometer
- A thermometer measures temperature. The Fahrenheit and Celsius scales match at only one point, minus 40 degrees.
- Weather Vane
- A weather vane swings to point into the wind, showing the direction it is blowing from. Many old barns and churches are topped with a rooster-shaped vane.
A few facts to share while you solve
- Lightning strikes somewhere on Earth roughly 40 to 50 times every second, according to satellite measurements.
- Snowflakes form six-sided crystals because of the way water molecules link together as they freeze.
- The Beaufort wind scale, devised by British naval officer Francis Beaufort in 1805, rates wind strength from 0 for calm to 12 for hurricane force.
Four versions of this puzzle
Pick a version with the buttons above the grid. Each one has its own grid and answer key, and your progress on each is saved separately in this browser.
| Version | Words | Grid | Directions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words, reading forward across and down. |
| Medium | 20 | 14 × 14 | Twenty words across, down and diagonally. No backwards words. |
| Hard | 32 | 17 × 17 | Every word, in all eight directions including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. |
| Large print | 12 | 11 × 11 | The 12 most familiar words on a small grid with big letters. No backwards words. |
Hard and large print versions
Hard weather word search: all 32 words on a 17 × 17 grid, hidden forward, backward, up, down and along both diagonals, with filler letters borrowed from the word list. Print it without the word list for an extra challenge. Play the hard version, or see all hard word searches.
Large print weather word search: the 12 most familiar words on a 11 × 11 grid, printed with big letters and a big word list, and no backwards words. Play the large print version, or see all large print word searches.
Printing this word search
Press Print / PDF above the puzzle. You get a clean one-page sheet with the title, the grid, a word list with tick boxes, and optional name and date lines. The answer key prints on a second page. Prefer a file? Download it as a PDF or an image to print later or drop into a worksheet. Whatever version is showing on screen is the one that prints, and the large print version prints with bigger letters.
How to play online
- Find a word from the list in the grid. Scanning for its first letter is the quickest way.
- Drag across the word from its first letter to its last. On a phone, you can also tap the first letter, then the last.
- Found words get highlighted and crossed off. Stuck? Hint circles the first letter of a word you haven’t found.
Read the full guide to solving word searches, with tips that make big grids much faster.
Questions and answers
What's the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is what the atmosphere is doing over a short time, like today's rain or this week's heat wave. Climate is the average pattern of weather in a place over many years, usually 30 or more. A simple way to remember it: weather is your mood, climate is your personality.
What grade is this weather word search for?
It fits grades 2 through 6 well. Younger students know Rainbow, Fog, and Hail already, which builds confidence, while words like Barometer, Humidity, and Jet Stream match the vocabulary in most upper elementary weather units. Adults who follow the forecast will enjoy the harder setting too.
Is there an answer key for this weather word search?
Yes. Choose Print / PDF above the puzzle and keep “Add an answer key page” ticked. The key prints on its own page, with every word highlighted. While playing online, Show answers outlines any words you haven’t found yet.
Can I print copies for my class or group?
Yes. Every puzzle on BetterWordSearch is free to print for personal, classroom, library and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need. To change the words or make several different versions of the grid, use the word search maker.
What changes between Easy, Medium, Hard and Large print?
Easy hides the 12 most familiar words, reading left to right and top to bottom. Medium uses 20 words and adds diagonals. Hard hides all 32 words in every direction, including backwards, with look-alike filler letters. Large print uses the same words as Easy on a small grid and prints with big letters.
