Q 01/05

A bolt of lightning heats the air around it to roughly five times the temperature of what?

A) Molten lava

B) A blast furnace

C) The Sun's surface

D) A rocket's exhaust

Answer · why

C) The Sun's surface

The Sun's surface is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while air in a lightning channel can reach 50,000. Air is a poor conductor, so it heats up fierc...

Q 02/05

The Great Red Spot, a giant storm that astronomers have tracked since at least 1831, swirls on which planet?

A) Jupiter

B) Neptune

C) Venus

D) Uranus

Answer · why

A) Jupiter

Jupiter's great storm spins counterclockwise about once every four and a half Earth days. It has been shrinking for roughly a century.

Q 03/05

What was the day job of Roy Sullivan, the American recorded as surviving seven lightning strikes between 1942 and 1977?

A) Golf caddie

B) Park ranger

C) Power lineman

D) Lighthouse keeper

Answer · why

B) Park ranger

Park ranger Roy Sullivan worked in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park and was nicknamed the Human Lightning Rod. Two of his ranger hats went on displ...

Q 04/05

Which Japanese word first named the storms said to have wrecked Kublai Khan's fleets?

A) Tsunami

B) Banzai

C) Samurai

D) Kamikaze

Answer · why

D) Kamikaze

Kamikaze means divine wind. Storms were credited with wrecking Mongol fleets in 1274 and again in 1281, and the word was revived in the Second World W...

Q 05/05

In the 1996 film Twister, what name do the storm chasers give the sensor-packed device they launch into a tornado?

A) Dorothy

B) Tin Man

C) Glinda

D) Auntie Em

Answer · why

A) Dorothy

Dorothy was inspired by TOTO, a real instrumented barrel that researchers tried to set in the path of tornadoes in the 1980s.