Weather Trivia for Seniors: 20 Questions With Answers
Oct 1, 2026
Here are twenty weather trivia questions with their answers, split into four rounds of five. The rounds move from the sayings people repeated at the farm gate to the record storms of the last century, then to the names on the clouds and winds, and finally to the instruments that once hung in hallway and porch. Every answer sits directly under its question.
The questions stay with weather everyone has lived through — a red sky, a late frost, a night the wind would not stop — rather than meteorology textbooks. The aim is an hour of talk around a table, not an examination in isobars.
Why a weather theme works at a shared table
Almost everyone has a story about weather, because weather is the one thing a whole street shares. A question about a ring round the moon leads to a question about the winter the pipes froze. The subject is easy to picture, so the table answers before the host finishes reading.
It also makes for mixed teams: someone who kept a garden remembers the sayings, someone who worked outdoors remembers the forecasts, and the argument between them is the best part of the round.
How the twenty questions are grouped
Read one round at a time; allow about ten minutes for five questions plus the talk that follows.
| Round | Theme | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weather sayings and family proverbs | 1–5 |
| 2 | Storms and weather records | 6–10 |
| 3 | The names of clouds and winds | 11–15 |
| 4 | The old tools of forecasting | 16–20 |
Round 1: weather sayings and family proverbs
- Which evening sky gave sailors the all-clear in the old saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight"? A red sky at sunset.
- How does that same saying finish for the morning? "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning."
- Complete the old rain rule: "Rain before seven, ..." "...fine before eleven."
- What are the thin, hooked streaks of high cloud called "mares' tails", and what were they said to warn of? Cirrus cloud, said to mean a change of weather was on the way.
- What does a bright ring — a halo — around the moon traditionally mean? Rain on the way; the ring is made by ice crystals high in the cloud above.
Round 2: storms and weather records
- Where was the highest air temperature ever recorded on Earth, 134 °F in 1913? Furnace Creek, in Death Valley, California.
- Which state recorded the lowest temperature in the United States, −80 °F at Prospect Creek in 1971? Alaska.
- On which summit was the 231 mph surface wind record set in 1934, a mark that stood for sixty-two years? Mount Washington, in New Hampshire.
- What did the people of the southern plains call the dust storms that swept through their towns in the 1930s? Black blizzards; the years are remembered as the Dust Bowl.
- Which scale, devised in 1971, is still used to grade the strength of a tornado? The Fujita scale, now the Enhanced Fujita, or EF, scale.
Round 3: the names of clouds and winds
- Which family of cloud takes its name from the Latin for a curl of hair and sits highest in the sky? Cirrus.
- Which puffy, cotton-wool cloud takes its name from the Latin for a heap? Cumulus.
- Which flat, grey cloud spreads across the whole sky and gives steady drizzle or rain? Stratus, and its rain-bearing form, nimbostratus.
- Which warm, dry wind coming down the eastern slopes of the Rockies is nicknamed the "snow eater"? The Chinook.
- Which seasonal wind takes its name from the Arabic word for "season"? The monsoon.
Round 4: the old tools of forecasting
- Which wall dial, tapped before it is read, measures the weight of the air? The barometer.
- Which instrument spins three or four cups on arms to measure how fast the wind is blowing? The anemometer.
- What was the little wooden cottage with two figures, one stepping out in dry weather and the other in wet? A weather house.
- Which sealed glass of camphor and alcohol was watched for changing crystal shapes that people once read as a forecast? A storm glass.
- Which simple container, set out overnight and read the next morning, measures how much rain has fallen? A rain gauge.
Hosting notes that keep the table talking
- Open with the sayings round. Almost everyone can finish "Rain before seven", so the table gets answers early and settles in.
- Read each question twice, once at normal speed and once slowly, then wait. Silence usually means thinking.
- Let tables of three or four answer together. A small group arrives at more answers, and the discussion is the enjoyable part.
- Keep the answer column covered. A sheet of card down the page stops the host reading ahead by accident.
- Finish with an open question. Ask which storm everyone remembers, and let the room answer without scoring.
More rounds and themes
If the weather round goes down well, the travel trivia round keeps the talk on journeys and the places people left behind, while the classic cars trivia round moves it to the first car anyone owned. For an indoor afternoon there is a kitchen trivia round, a school days trivia round and a first jobs trivia round. Groups that meet every week often pair a round of questions with the word games for social clubs.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a twenty-question weather quiz take to run?
About forty-five minutes at an easy pace, with a break after round two. For a shorter sitting, run the sayings round and the cloud names round, and keep the records for another day.
Do we need any equipment or pictures to run this quiz?
No. Every question can be read aloud from the sheet. A newspaper weather map or a photograph of an old wall barometer passed round the table gives everyone something to look at while they think.
What if nobody at the table knows an answer?
Read the question again and add one more detail: the country, the decade, or what the weather did that year. Weather questions usually turn into stories about a storm, a harvest or a school morning.
Can the rounds be used one to one or with a small group?
Yes. With two or three people, read each question and let everyone answer before you read the answer aloud. One to one works just as well, because a single question about a particular winter can open ten minutes of talk on its own.
Where can I find more trivia rounds like this one?
The nostalgia trivia collection on this site holds free printable rounds on food, films, music, travel and nature, and the printable centre adds word searches and bingo cards on the same themes. All of it is free to print for family gatherings, activity groups and classrooms.
These questions are offered for fun, enjoyment and social activity, with no claims about health or cognitive outcomes.