• Severe-weather preparedness can be learned from interactive weather games.lightning image by chrisharvey from Fotolia.com
  
  You can find a variety of free interactive weather games online that will allow students to have fun while learning about weather. Educational weather games help students learn about weather maps, severe-weather preparedness and weather prediction. These games often put players in the action, allowing them to predict weather or even manipulate the weather themselves.
  
  

Edheads Weather Activities

• The Edheads educational website provides two weather activities. In the "Report the Weather" activity, players must quickly choose the correct weather map symbol to illustrate the verbal weather report. Players learn to recognize the appropriate symbols for high and low pressure systems and warm and cold fronts. In the "Predict the Weather" activity, players must predict future weather based on information about current temperature, precipitation and cloud coverage. Each activity has three difficulty levels, so players can continue to test their knowledge as they learn more.
  
  

The Weather Channel Kids: Interactive Games

• The Weather Channel Kids provides interactive weather games that help children learn about weather safety and emergency preparedness. Kids can put together online jigsaw puzzles based on images of emergency supplies that every home should have available. In the "Seek and Find" games, players have to study a detailed illustration and find a variety of weather-preparedness and sun-safety supplies. The website also offers word searches with hidden sun-safety and severe-weather preparedness vocabulary.
  
  

Scholastic Kids: Weather Maker

• The kids portion of Scholastic's website offers an interactive "Weather Maker" game that allows players to manipulate and control the weather. Players can attempt to create thunderstorms, snowstorms or calm sunny days by adjusting humidity levels and the temperatures at the poles. As players make decisions about temperature and humidity, the game provides information about how these conditions interact to create specific weather events.
  
  

Apples 4 the Teacher Interactive Games

• The science games section of Apples4theteacher.com provides several interactive weather games. In the weather memory game, players flip two cards at a time and try to find matching pairs of weather-related symbols and images. Players must remember the locations of cards they have already flipped to successfully pair all of the cards. This site also offers a word-search game with hidden weather vocabulary.