Weather Word Search PDF With Storms, Clouds and Forecasting Tools

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Name Date

Weather Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

FTBCDVMKPXUPHYA

OTENIRTAOOAARBV

RCPRECIPITATION

ERQHUMIDITYIUHT

CFTBUETORNADOUT

ARELIGHTNINGIRH

SALIGOEPEHCLIRU

TIMZIIRRLNIBIIN

NNOZTIMEUFOKICD

ABTATMOSPHEREAE

WORROWMSSSWBNNR

HWYDNIEUEEIAREP

HTUCFGTRDROUGHT

CLIMATEEBOWINDK

NLFDRFRONTXQEPW

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

PrecipitationPRECIPITATION
ThunderTHUNDER
LightningLIGHTNING
TornadoTORNADO
HurricaneHURRICANE
BlizzardBLIZZARD
DroughtDROUGHT
RainbowRAINBOW
WindWIND
HumidityHUMIDITY
PressurePRESSURE
AtmosphereATMOSPHERE
FrontFRONT
ClimateCLIMATE
ForecastFORECAST
ThermometerTHERMOMETER

16 of 24 words from the Weather Key Terms list.

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Show clues, not words

Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

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Answer key: Weather Word Search

FTBCDVMKPXUPHYA

OTENIRTAOOAARBV

RCPRECIPITATION

ERQHUMIDITYIUHT

CFTBUETORNADOUT

ARELIGHTNINGIRH

SALIGOEPEHCLIRU

TIMZIIRRLNIBIIN

NNOZTIMEUFOKICD

ABTATMOSPHEREAE

WORROWMSSSWBNNR

HWYDNIEUEEIAREP

HTUCFGTRDROUGHT

CLIMATEEBOWINDK

NLFDRFRONTXQEPW

PRECIPITATION, THUNDER, LIGHTNING, TORNADO, HURRICANE, BLIZZARD, DROUGHT, RAINBOW, WIND, HUMIDITY, PRESSURE, ATMOSPHERE, FRONT, CLIMATE, FORECAST, THERMOMETER

Next step Build a puzzle from your own weather unit notes Scramble the same weather words

All 130 words

Rain, Snow and the Water Cycle 22

Cloudburst A huge amount of rain in a very short time, sometimes with hail and thunder.
Condensation Water vapor cooling into liquid droplets, the step that builds clouds.
Dew Beads of water that gather on grass and other cool surfaces late at night or at dawn.
Downpour A very heavy fall of rain.
Drizzle Light rain made of drops smaller than half a millimeter across.
Droplet A very small drop of water; clouds and fog are made of them.
Evaporation Liquid water turning into water vapor at the surface of seas, lakes and puddles.
Flake One feathery piece of snow, built from six-sided ice crystals.
Flurry A light, brief fall of snow that leaves little on the ground.
Frost A thin coat of ice crystals that grows on grass and glass when water vapor freezes onto them.
Graupel Soft hail, or snow pellets: supercooled water frozen onto a falling snowflake.
Hail Balls of ice from thunderstorms, usually 5 millimeters to 15 centimeters across.
Precipitation Any water that falls from clouds to the ground: rain, snow, sleet or hail.
Rain Liquid water that falls from clouds in drops.

Show all 130 words (116 more)

Rain, Snow and the Water Cycle, continued

Runoff Rain that flows over the ground into streams instead of soaking into the soil.
Shower A sudden, brief fall of rain or snow.
Sleet In American English, small hard balls of ice that fall; British English says ice pellets.
Slush Snow and liquid water in a sloppy mix.
Snow Ice crystals that grow inside clouds and fall as white flakes.
Transpiration Water leaving a plant as vapor through tiny openings in its leaves.
Virga Streaks of rain or snow that evaporate before they reach the ground.
Water cycle The endless journey of rain to rivers, to the sea, up into the air and back down again.

Storms and Severe Weather 24

Blizzard Snowstorm with gusts of 35 miles per hour or more and visibility under a quarter mile for 3 hours.
Cyclone The name used for a hurricane-like storm in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific.
Derecho A widespread, long-lived storm of straight-line winds; its name is Spanish for straight.
Drought A long stretch with far less rain than normal, which dries soil and shrinks rivers.
Eye The mostly calm center of a hurricane, typically 30 to 65 kilometers across.
Flood Water spilling over ground that is normally dry, often after heavy rain.
Funnel The cone shape of a rotating cloud hanging below a thunderstorm, not yet touching the ground.
Gale A strong wind of 34 to 47 knots, in the National Weather Service definition.
Haboob An intense dust storm; the name comes from an Arabic root meaning wind or blow.
Heat wave A run of days much hotter than usual for the place and the time of year.
Hurricane A tropical cyclone of the Atlantic or northeast Pacific with winds of 74 miles per hour or more.
Lightning A giant electric spark that heats the air around it to about 30,000 degrees Celsius.
Monsoon A seasonal reversing wind that brings a rainy phase and a dry phase each year.
Squall A sudden burst of much stronger wind that lasts for minutes, often with a heavy shower.
Storm A violent disturbance of the atmosphere, with strong winds and usually rain, snow or thunder.
Supercell A thunderstorm with a tall spinning updraft at its core: the least common and most severe kind.
Surge Seawater pushed ashore by a hurricane or other low-pressure system, flooding the coast.
Thunder The sound of lightning: heated air expands so fast that it sends out a shock wave.
Tornado A violently rotating column of air reaching from a storm cloud down to the ground.
Twister An everyday name for a tornado.
Typhoon The name for a hurricane-strength tropical cyclone in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Warning National Weather Service alert meaning take action: a tornado was sighted or shown on radar.
Watch National Weather Service alert meaning be prepared: tornadoes are possible in the area.
Waterspout A spinning column of air and spray, like a tornado, over a lake or the sea.

Clouds and Sky 21

Anvil The flat, spreading top of a fully grown thunderstorm cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's block.
Cirrus High, wispy strands of ice crystals; the Latin name means tendril or curl.
Cloud A mass of tiny water drops or ice crystals that can be seen; the main kinds were named in 1802.
Contrail A line-shaped cloud behind a high-flying aircraft; the name shortens condensation trail.
Cumulonimbus The towering thunderstorm cloud, often with a flat, anvil-shaped top.
Cumulus Fluffy, cotton-like heaps low in the sky; the Latin name means heap.
Fog A cloud at ground level that cuts visibility to less than 1 kilometer.
Halo A ring of light around the Sun or Moon made by ice crystals high in the air.
Haze Dry dust, smoke and other fine particles that make the sky look dull and blur far-off hills.
Horizon The line where the land or sea appears to meet the sky.
Lenticular Lens-shaped or saucer-shaped; said of clouds that form where air flows over mountains and hills.
Mammatus Rounded pouches that hang from the underside of a cloud, most often a cumulonimbus.
Mist Small water droplets hanging in the air that blur the view less than fog does.
Overcast With cloud covering at least 95 percent of the sky.
Rainbow An arc of colors made when water droplets bend and reflect sunlight; always opposite the Sun.
Sky Everything you see above the horizon when you look up outdoors.
Smog Dirty air. The name, coined in the early 1900s, blends smoke with fog.
Spectrum The band of colors, red through violet, that a rainbow spreads out.
Stratus Low, gray, featureless sheets in horizontal layers; they often bring drizzle.
Sun dog A bright patch in the sky made by ice crystals, level with the solar disk and off to one side.
Sunshine Direct light from the Sun on a day with few clouds.

Wind, Air and Temperature 22

Air mass A huge body of the atmosphere with much the same temperature and moisture all through it.
Anticyclone A high-pressure system, where the air presses harder than in the areas around it.
Atmosphere The layer of gases around Earth; dry air is about 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen.
Beaufort scale Wind force ratings from 0, calm, to 12, hurricane force, devised by a Royal Navy officer in 1805.
Breeze A light, gentle wind; a sea one blows from the water onto the land in the afternoon.
Celsius Temperature scale named for a Swedish astronomer; water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100.
Climate What the weather of a place is like on average, worked out over 30 years or so.
Convection Heat moving as warmer, less dense air rises and cooler, denser air sinks.
Dew point The temperature at which air is saturated and its water vapor starts to condense.
Downdraft A current of sinking air, such as the cold one dragged down by falling rain.
Fahrenheit Temperature scale on which water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212.
Front The line where two air masses of unlike density meet; it can be cold or warm.
Gust A brief increase in the speed of the wind, lasting only seconds.
Humidity Water vapor held in the air.
Jet stream A fast, narrow river of air high up that blows from west to east right around the planet.
Moisture Water held in the air or the soil, as vapor or tiny drops.
Pressure The push of the weight of the atmosphere on everything below it; a barometer measures it.
Temperature How hot or cold the air is, measured in degrees.
Troposphere The bottom layer of the atmosphere, where we live and where most weather happens.
Updraft A current of rising air, such as the warm, moist one that feeds a thunderstorm.
Weather The state of the atmosphere at one place and time: hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy.
Wind Air on the move across the land and sea, from a light breeze to a gale.

Weather Forecasting Tools 21

Almanac A yearly book that lists forecasts, planting dates and tide tables by the calendar.
Anemometer Instrument that measures wind speed; the common kind spins three or four small cups.
Barometer Instrument that measures air pressure; Evangelista Torricelli is credited with inventing it in 1643.
Data The readings and measurements that forecasters collect.
Doppler Kind of radar that detects the motion of rain droplets as well as how heavy the rain is.
Forecast A prediction of the weather for the hours and days ahead.
Hygrometer Instrument that measures humidity; a 1783 design sensed it with a stretched human hair.
Isobar A line on a chart that joins places with equal air pressure.
Meteorologist A scientist who studies the atmosphere and forecasts the weather.
Millibar A unit of air pressure introduced by the Norwegian forecaster Vilhelm Bjerknes.
Predict To say what is likely to happen next, as a forecaster does.
Radar It sends out radio pulses that bounce off rain, snow and hail to show where they are falling.
Radiosonde A battery-powered instrument box carried up by a weather balloon, sending readings back by radio.
Rain gauge Instrument that collects and measures liquid precipitation over a set time.
Record The highest or lowest reading ever measured at a place, such as its hottest day.
Satellite A spacecraft that watches clouds from orbit, passing over the poles or fixed above the equator.
Station A site with instruments that measure temperature, wind, pressure and rainfall.
Thermometer Instrument that measures how hot or cold the air is.
Weather map A chart of fronts, highs, lows and isobars over a region at one time.
Weather vane Rooftop pointer that turns to show wind direction, traditionally shaped like a cockerel.
Windsock A cloth tube on a pole at an airport that shows pilots which way the air is moving, and how fast.

Words That Describe the Weather 20

Arid So dry that little can grow, like a desert climate.
Balmy Pleasantly warm and gentle, like a soft evening breeze.
Blustery Blowing in strong, noisy gusts.
Calm With no wind at all: force 0 on the Beaufort wind scale.
Chilly Cool enough to make you want a jacket.
Clear Free of clouds, fog and haze.
Cold Having a low temperature, as on a winter morning.
Damp Slightly wet, like the air after a drizzle.
Dry With no rain and hardly any water vapor in the air.
Fair Pleasant and dry, with light winds and little cloud.
Frigid Bitterly cold, like an Arctic night in January.
Hot Having a high temperature, as on a summer afternoon.
Humid Holding a lot of water vapor, so the air feels sticky.
Icy Covered in frozen water and slippery underfoot.
Mild Neither hot nor cold; gentle for the time of year.
Muggy Warm and sticky at the same time, because the air holds so much water vapor.
Sunny Bright with direct light from the Sun and few clouds.
Sweltering Uncomfortably hot, as in the middle of a heat wave.
Tropical Belonging to the warm belt around the equator, where the Sun can stand straight overhead.
Wet Rainy, or soaked by rain.

How this list was compiled: Own work: the word list and every clue were written for this page. The facts in the clues were checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather) and the United States National Weather Service pages on watches and warnings (https://www.weather.gov/safety/winter-ww, https://www.weather.gov/safety/tornado-ww). Some clues were reworded on 2026-09-20, and any fact that changed was checked against Wikipedia the same day. Licence: own work

How it works

For a weather word search PDF, press Print or save as PDF and pick Save as PDF in the print window. The puzzle starts on 16 key terms, such as Tornado, Humidity and Forecast; 9 lists hold 130 words.

Read the full guide

From a rainy day word find to the full unit

For a rainy day word search with young children, pick Easy Weather in the Start from a list row under the puzzle: 42 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Rain, Hail and Gust. Words That Describe the Weather (20) adds Sunny, Muggy and Calm. A rain word search for older pupils comes from Rain, Snow and the Water Cycle (22), with Drizzle, Virga and Condensation. Storms and Severe Weather (24), Clouds and Sky (21), Wind, Air and Temperature (22) and Weather Forecasting Tools (21) follow the unit.

What the weather word search printable holds

Two pages on Letter or A4: the puzzle under a Name and Date line, then the answer key for that grid.

Rainbow is a key term and Rain is not, because RAIN sits inside it. Rain is in Easy Weather.
Precipitation needs 13 squares. While it is listed, the grid grows to hold it.
Ten entries, Water cycle and Jet stream among them, drop their space in the grid: WATERCYCLE.

Questions and answers

Is this a weather and climate word search?

Yes. Climate is one of the 24 key terms, beside Weather, Front and Atmosphere. The clues keep the two apart: weather is the state of the air at one place and time, and climate is the average over 30 years or so.

What is the difference between a watch and a warning?

Both words are in Storms and Severe Weather. In National Weather Service alerts, a tornado watch means be prepared, because tornadoes are possible. A warning means take action, because one has been sighted or shown on radar.

Can the weather word search puzzle check vocabulary, not just spelling?

Yes. Tick Show clues, not words, in More options. Each word gives way to its one-line meaning, so pupils read "Water vapor held in the air." and hunt for Humidity.

All 130 words

Rain, Snow and the Water Cycle 22

Rain, Snow and the Water Cycle, continued

Storms and Severe Weather 24

Clouds and Sky 21

Wind, Air and Temperature 22

Weather Forecasting Tools 21

Words That Describe the Weather 20

How it works

From a rainy day word find to the full unit

What the weather word search printable holds

Questions and answers

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