Trivia time: 20 questions on the weather!

Welcome – are you loving Expat Living’s weekly quizzes? How about challenging a friend or family member? You can get together with them over Zoom, Houseparty or Google Hangouts. This week, it’s 20 trivia questions on the weather.

#1 Which is colder, zero degrees Celsius or zero degrees Fahrenheit?

#2 A snowflake has how many sides?

#3 It mightn’t actually rain cats and dogs, but it can rain other smaller animals. What allegedly fell from the sky onto Bath, England, in an 1894 storm: jellyfish, snakes or mice?

#4 Bill Murray plays a cynical TV weatherman in which 1993 fantasy comedy film?

#5 The Beaufort Scale, which measures wind strength, includes five types of breeze: Fresh, Light, Strong, Gentle, Moderate. List them from weakest to strongest.

#6 Is the average lightning bolt as wide as a strand of hair, a thumb or a baseball?

#7 On 28 March 2007, around 9,000 people in North Dakota lay down on the ground and proceeded to set the Guinness World Record for what? (Hint: It had been snowing.)

#8 Rain that evaporates before it hits the ground is known as black rain, empty rain or phantom rain?

#9 Harvey, Ike and Katrina are all names of what?

#10 In the famous old saying, does “Red sky at night” signify good or bad weather?

#11 Match the song with the artist: “Sunshine of Your Love”, “Soak Up The Sun”, “Black Hole Sun”; Sheryl Crow, Soundgarden, Cream

#12 What process of “weather modification” was used at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in an effort to prevent a downpour of rain at the opening ceremony?

#13 Which city has the highest average annual rainfall: Bangkok, London or Auckland?

#14 A tornado that forms over the ocean is called a what, starting with “w”?

#15 Which is more likely to bring fine and sunny weather, a low- or high-pressure system?

#16 A children’s book and film is Cloudy with a Chance of … what?

#17 Which of these is not the name of a wind: Mistral, Kalimpong, Fremantle Doctor, Sirocco?

#18 Starting with “d”, what’s the nautical term for an area near the equator where a lack of any wind can cause ships to get stuck at sea?

#19 What’s the highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica: 12, 16 or 20 degrees Celsius?

#20 What rained from the sky in the lyrics of a popular 1983 disco song by The Weather Girls?

BONUS

What am I?
(If you can answer correctly on the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require after that.)

I’m a Hollywood movie released in 1996. (10)
My executive producer was Steven Spielberg. (9)
I grossed US$495 million worldwide, behind only Independence Day for the year. (8)
My cast included Philip Seymour Hoffman, in one of his earlier film appearances. (7)
My original tagline was going to be “It sucks!”, but it was changed because producers were worried reviewers would use the words for comedic effect. (6)
My weather-related sound effects were created using altered recordings of animal growls and moans. (5)
My lead roles were played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. (4)
I’m a disaster movie about deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma. (3)
I have a one-word title beginning with the letter “T”. (2)
I am T____. (1)

All the answers (no cheating!)

#1 Zero degrees Fahrenheit (it equals around minus 17 degrees Celsius)
#2 Six
#3 Jellyfish
#4 Groundhog Day
#5 Light, Gentle, Moderate, Fresh, Strong
#6 Your thumb – around 2 to 3cm on average.
#7 The most snow angels made simultaneously in one place
#8 Phantom rain (also known as “virga”)
#9 Destructive Atlantic hurricanes (Katrina hit in 2005, Ike in 2008 and Harvey in 2017)
#10 Good weather (“Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight”)
#11 “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream; “Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow; “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden
#12 Cloud seeding
#13 Bangkok (its average of 1650mm is around a third higher than the other two)
#14 Waterspout
#15 High
#16 Meatballs
#17 Kalimpong (it’s a city in India)
#18 Doldrums
#19 20 degrees (20.75 degrees, to be precise, set in February this year)
#20 Men (“It’s Raining Men”)

BONUS: Twister