IN THE CLASSROOM:

California Elementary School seems like the place where a weatherman like Johnny Mountain or Dallas Raines would say they got their start.

Once a month and whenever it rains, third grade teacher Brian Hall’s students become storm trackers, using local websites like LATimes.com to access images of local weather. The kids depend on satellite images to show weather patterns — where the clouds are and where they’re going. They switch to radar when they track storms and how much rain could actually fall.

Students track storm cells across the region and estimate how much rain will hit the area and when. Hall even selects students to update the school through the PA system before recesses and lunches on rainy days.

Observing weather patterns does more than keep his students prepared for a soggy day, Hall said. They learn about different regional climates and what that means for the creatures that live there.

“It definitely doesn’t rain much down here,” said third-grader Darby Lester, noting September and October were mostly dry. November, however, was noticeably different. That month, Orange County got more than 2 inches of rain, and “that’s a lot considering it’s California,” she said.

Students also learn about weather patterns within regions, such as Southern California’s freshly-snowed mountains versus parched coastal counties.

“It’s amazing how much [rain] we get down here and how much they get up there, because up there it’s a lot,” said 8-year-old Killian Mulrooney.

To prove that fact, Hall’s class is recording weather throughout the year. Friday they started in the school’s computer lab, punching data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. They’ll turn that into a lesson about desert climates versus other climates.

“This had kind of got a mind of its own. The teachers think this is so cute,” Hall said of the program.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.