1. The highest kite ever flown reached almost 2 1/2 miles!

2. When powerful winds blow across deserts and other dry places, they can pick up sand and soil and carry it far away. Sand from the Sahara Desert in Africa is often blown across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.

3. When air is warmed by the sun, it rises higher into the sky. Other air then moves in to take its place. This movement of air is what we call wind.

4. On a cold day, the wind can make you feel even colder. This is called “wind chill,” and it happenes because the wind carries away your body heat, making you lose heat faster.

5. The fastest wind speed ever recorded on Earth was 318 miles per hour. It happened inside a tornado in Oklahoma in 1999.

Even more fun:

• Try racing leaves of different size and shapes. Which blow the best?
• Go to a pond and have a “leaf sailing” race.
• Find a flowing stream and race floating sticks.
• Go fly a kite

Thar She Blows- Windy days are great for flying kites. But you can do even more by having a wind race– with dead leaves.

What you do:

• Find a dead and dry leaf. (You need one for each racer.)
• Mark your leaf with your initials or name.
• Turn your back to the wind. Decide on a finish line about 20 feet or more in front of you.
• Set your leaf down on the ground and step aside.
• Now root for your leaf as the wind blows the leaves toward the finish line.
• The first leaf to cross the line is the winner.