Everyday Weather
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Meteorology
This event rotates topics. See the Climate notes page for more information about climate.
General Info
Everday weather is what some would consider the most complex subject for Meteorology, mainly because it covers all bases of Meteorology, even some climate and storm systems. but the major information to learn will include:
- Structure and composition of the modern atmosphere
- Properties of water
- Types of clouds associated with weather
- Heat transport including the energy budget, insolation, albedo, convection and radiation
- Atmospheric circulation including the Coriolis Effect, planetary wind belts, jet stream, local wind patterns (including Chinook winds, mountain and sea breezes) and the three cell model of circulation
- Air Masses
- Fronts
- Surface weather stations
- satellite imagery,isobars, isotherms,surface weather maps showing isobars, fronts, and radar data; metograms; Doppler imagery
- Weather instrumentation including barometers, thermometers, anemometers, sling psychrometers, rain gauges, radiosondes, rawinsondes, and the Beaufort scale
- Atmospheric phenomena
Everyday Weather focuses on the mechanics of Earth’s atmosphere and how it causes daily weather. This is a large shift from Climate that emphasizes long-term predictable patterns of weather
The atmosphere
The sections below illustrate the concepts and importance of the atmosphere in the study of meteorology.
Origins of the atmosphere
This may seem like a review to some of you but read it anyway; you may learn something new.
The origin of Earth’s atmosphere is subject to debate. We can be fairly certain of is that when the Earth was formed around five billion years ago, it was too hot to retain the gases that it had in its primordial atmosphere. Earth’s first atmosphere most likely consisted of helium, hydrogen, ammonia and methane.
What happened over thousands of years is that volcanoes emitted amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide and nitrogen - the same gases emitted by volcanoes today. This expulsion of gases from Earth’s interior is a process known as outgassing. The water vapor expelled by the hot, volcanic Earth in turn created clouds, which produced rain.
Over time, the rain would accumulate in basins as rivers, lakes and oceans. These basins in turn acted as sinks for accumulated carbon dioxide, which later became locked into deposits of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. Nitrogen, which is not chemically active, accumulated in the atmosphere. Any significant amounts of oxygen probably did not exist in Earth’s early atmosphere.
Only when tiny bacteria living in Earth’s oceans developed the ability to split water molecules apart by using the energy of sunlight could any significant amount of oxygen begin to accumulate in the atmosphere. It was these processes that are believed to have produced the modern atmospheric composition of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.
Organization Of the Atmosphere
The atmospheric layers are in order from sea level to space:
Troposphere
The troposphere is where all weather takes place. It is a region of rising and falling pockets of air moving mostly vertically.
The troposphere's height varies between seasons and latitudes, with the equator having the highest troposphere (12-16 km) and the poles the lowest (8km).
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is located above the troposphere, separated from it by the tropopause. You’ve probably flown up into the lower levels of the stratosphere above the clouds on an airplane. Most clouds cannot form in the stratosphere because its temperature inversion inhibits convection. As a result, airflow in the stratosphere is mostly horizontal.
The stratosphere contains the ozone layer, which absorbs the majority of dangerous UV radiation from the sun. It is also the cause of the stratosphere's temperature inversion, because the ozone layer is very warm from absorbing so much radiation.
Mesosphere
Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. In the mesosphere, temperatures drop with increasing altitude.
Thermosphere
The outer-most layer. Though the thermosphere has a very high temperature since the molecules move very fast, it has a very low heat because the molecules are spaced so far apart. (Remember that temperature is the average kinetic energy, while heat is total kinetic energy)
You should know how temperature changes within each layer.
Atmospheric circulation
Let’s take a look at the motion of the atmosphere on a global scale and look at how it's associated with everyday weather.
A non-spinning planet would only experience the influence of unequal heating by the Sun, with the most direct sunlight reaching the tropics and the least amount reaching the polar regions. Under these circumstances, a simple convection system would suffice with extreme heating in the low latitudes causing warm air to rise.
When this rising air mass reaches the top of the tropopause it stops its upward movement and begins to move towards the poles as an upper level wind
Cooling air at the Polar Regions encourages the air to sink downward and fall towards the surface. At the surface, this cold air then begins to flow towards the equator
These convection cells transfer heat by the movement air from the equator towards the poles and then cycle air near from the surface to the equator forming the basis of the two cell model
Air pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the weight of the overlying column of air above you.
As your altitude increases air pressure decreases, because there is less air mass on top of you.
As you decrease your altitude air pressure increases. Because there is more air on top of you.
Around 80% of the mass of Earth’s atmosphere is within the closest 18km to its surface.
Atmospheric pressure is normally measured in units called millibars (mb). One millibar is equal to 1 gram per centimeter squared (1g/cm2).
At sea level, the average air pressure is 1,013mb. At the top of Mt. Everest the air pressure can get as low as 300mb. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is decreased at higher elevations because of the lower air pressure, as the pressure of gases such as oxygen is related to density. That means there is only about 1/3 as much oxygen on Mt. Everest as there is at sea level. This why many people who attempt to climb Mt. Everest experience shortness of breath as they climb to higher elevations. Descending air forms high pressure centers or divergence.
Polar highs result from the descent of cold air and its movement towards onto the surface. Subtropical highs form as warm air in the 20-30° latitude range in both hemispheres rises and then begins to cool as it falls towards the surface. This air is very dry making surface conditions in these regions very arid. Most of the world’s deserts in both hemispheres are found in this latitude range. High pressure cells move in a clockwise direction
Ascending air forms low-pressure systems or areas of convergence. Tropical lows form as warm air ascends up into the atmosphere. Sub polar lows form as warm air in the 50-60° latitude ranges of both hemispheres rises producing abundant precipitation. Low-pressure cells move in a counterclockwise direction
Air tends to move from areas of high to low pressure. Air is denser and highly concentrated in high-pressure cells, which means it is drier. Air is less dense in low-pressure cells, which means that it is capable of holding more moisture.
Coriolis Effect and the Three cell model
If the Earth did not rotate on its axis, we would have a single circulation cell in each hemisphere. The rotation of the earth on its axis from west to east creates the Coriolis Effect, which causes the different air masses created by the unequal heating of the planet’s surface to shift directionlike the picture on the left do you see the deflection created by the Coriolis Effect and how they change in each hemispheres and in different regions of each hemisphere
The Coriolis Effect causes wind patterns in the Northern Hemisphere to differ from wind patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Coriolis Effect deflects the movement of air to the right. In the Southern Hemisphere, this movement is deflected to the left. This creates the three main wind belts found at the surface of each hemisphere including the easterly trade winds, prevailing westerlies and the polar easterlies.
three cell model
The Coriolis Effect turns the high and low pressure cells of each hemisphere into a series of three different convection cells known as the Hadley Cell, the Ferrell Cell and the Polar Cell. all are found in each hemisphere.
The three cell model is that the earths global winds are in three belts each belt is a cell you have
the Polar cell which is the Cold high pressure cell around the polls the winds in this cell blow like you would expect with the coriolois effect
inbetween the Polar and next cell (Ferrel Cell) you have a subpolar low its importance shalt be noted in a minute
than you have the Ferrel Cell which is the mid latitude cell and is a warm cell
Inbetween the Ferrel Cell and next cell (hadley) you have a subtropical high and again just remember this in a few minutes
The hadley cell is also a warm cell and the winds again blow like you would expect with the coriolis effect to the left when looking at it from a diagram and to the right if you where looking at it like you where on the north pole
The Real World
As many of you know the real world screws up the concept of the Coriolis effect
take this picture for example
as many of you see it has the winds blowing the "wrong" direction if we are thinking about the coriolis effect right?
if you read above you will hopefully remember the global cells and the area that the winds are blowing "backwards" in is the Ferrel cell.
this happens because winds blow from high pressure to low pressure. there is a subtropical high at 30degrees and a sub polar low at 60 degrees therefore the wind blows from 30degrees to 60 degrees.but it is not unefected by the Coriolis effect because it still curves it is just effected differently
Local Wind Patterns/Global Winds
Planetary Winds
Global scale winds are winds that are created in the different Global circulation Cells.
you have the:
- Polar Easterlies
- Prevailing Westerlies
- Trade Winds
The polar easterlies blow from the Pole to 600
The Prevailing Westerlies blow from 600 to 30 0
The Trade Winds blow from 300 to00
Mountain/valley winds
During the day, mountains warm, causing the air over them to be warmer than the air over the valley at the same elevation. Warming the air causes it to rise up, creating a valley wind. During the evening, the air cools due to a loss of surface energy to space. The cool dense air moves down slope as a mountain wind.
Chinook winds
A Chinook wind is a warm dry wind on the leeward side of a mountain. As air descends the leeward side of a mountain, it is compressed and adiabatically heated. Warming the air causes the saturation point to increase, causing a decrease in its relative humidity. The new warm and dry wind moves down slope rapidly, and during the Spring causes substantial melting of mountain snow.
Santa Ana winds
Santa Ana winds are warm and dry winds. Over plateau regions in the desert region of the United States, high pressure pushes the air off the plateaus, forcing the air into narrow mountain valleys. As the air is forced through the valley it compresses and warms. As the air warms the saturation point rises and its relative humidity drops.
Heat Transport
Earth Energy Budget
The Earth’s Energy Budget is determined by the amount of incoming energy and the amount of outgoing energy. Nearly all of Earth’s incoming energy (99.98%) is from solar radiation. About .013% comes from geothermal energy that is created by the radioactive decay of Earth’s core. About .002% of Earth’s incoming energy comes from the action of tides caused by the interaction of Earth with the Sun and Moon. Waste heat energy from fossil fuel consumption accounts for about .007% of Earth’s Energy Budget. The Earth has an average albedo of about 30% which means that ~30% of incoming solar radiation is radiated back into space before it reaches Earth's surface. After the 30% the atmosphere absorbs 19% and the earths surface absorbs 51%
Around 70% of solar energy that is absorbed by the Earth is reradiated as
infrared energy. The Earth’s Energy Budget is in equilibrium as the amount of incoming energy is balanced by the same amount of outgoing energy.
Convection
Convection is the transfer of heat from the Earth’s surface into the atmosphere. When a layer of air receives enough heat, it expands and is pushed upward by buoyancy. Then air becomes denser and moves laterally until it begins to sink and then begins to rise again as it warms. Atmospheric convection currents may cause breezes, winds, cyclones and thunderstorms.
Radiation Budget
Radiation budget refers to the balance between incoming radiation from the Sun and the outgoing thermal, or longwave and reflected shortwave energy from Earth. Globally the budget is balanced as the amount of incoming solar radiation is transformed into latent heat, or even kinetic energy. Energy transfers in the oceans along with the atmosphere keep the radiation budget in balance
But locally the Radiation Budget is unbalanced because tropical regions retain more insolation, while less is retained in higher latitudes.This accounts for differences in the temperature and pressure of air masses that originate in both regions affecting weather throughout the planet
Air masses And fronts
Air Masses
Large bodies of air that pass slowly over large areas of Earth’s surface and they take on the characteristics of that region such as temperature and humidity. The area from which the air mass derives its characteristics is its source region.
Air mass source regions can be snow covered areas near the poles,arid deserts, or even tropical oceans.
Air masses that form over the ocean are termed maritime air masses
those that form over land are called continental air masses.
Any further classification of air masses are normally based on longitude. Tropical air masses are formed in low latitudes Polar are formed in high latitudes.
Classifications
| Air Mass | Description |
|---|---|
| Continental Tropical (Ct) | Formed over land at low latitudes transports warm dry air |
| Maritime Tropical (Mt) | Formed over sea at low latitudes transports warm wet air |
| Continental Polar (Cp) | Formed over land at high latitudes transports cold dry air |
| Maritime Polar (Mp) | Formed over water at high latitudes transports cold wet air |
The major air masses that influence the United States are:
Polar air masses that form over Canada and Alaska often affect the weather of the United States as they move south and eastward.
The states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern seaboard often experience the effects of tropical air masses that move northward cuasing humid subtropical and continental climates.
Occasionally, arctic air masses may descend from high latitude regions in the winter months creating bitterly cold weather.
Tropical air masses from the Pacific may affect California and the Southwestern states during the winter months. Although it is influenced by these major air masses, the United States itself is not a favorable source region for fronts because so many weather disturbances disrupt opportunities for the formation of air masses.
Air masses move from their source region due to the Coriolis Effect where they will meet adjacent air masses with different properties. When these two air masses of different origin meet, the boundary between them is termed a front.
Fronts
Frontal boundaries are very narrow less than 200km wide.Normally one air mass is cooler than the other, giving the warmer air a tendency to flow up and over the cooler air mass. This cooler and denser air acts as a wedge that allows warmer less dense air to rise over it.
Types
Five Types
- Stationary Front
- Cold Front
Cold Front
- Warm Front
Warm Front - Occluded Front
- Dry Line
Warm Front
warm front is when warm air moves in and displaces an area of once cooler air. Warm fronts are characterized by an increase in temperature and the appearance of cirrus clouds.
- Shown on a map as semicircles
- clouds become lower as front nears
- Slow rate of advance
- light to moderate precipitation
- gradual temperature increase
Weather Patterns Associated with a warm front
| Before Passing | While Passing | After Passing | |
| Winds | South-southeast | Variable | South-southwest |
| Temperature | Cool-cold, slow warming | Steady rise | Warmer- then steady |
| Pressure | Usually falling | Levels off | Slight rise-then falling |
| Clouds | In this order Ci,Cs,As,Ns, St and fog | Stratus | Clearing with scattered Sc; some Cb in summer |
| Precipitation | Light to moderate rain, drizzle, snow or sleet | Drizzle or none | Usually none; possible light rain |
| Visibility | Poor | Poor- but improving | Fair in haze |
| Dewpoint | Steady rise | Steady | Rise, then steady |
Cold Fronts
Cold fronts are formed when cooler air replaces an area that was once occupied by warmer air.
associated with turbulent changes in weather temperatures drop as warm air is pushed aside vertically and abruptly. Tall, cumulonimbus clouds take shape and may form thunderstorms.
- shown on map as triangles
- cold air replaces warm air
- weather is more violent than warm front
- faster rate of advance
- precipitation intense
- clear after front passes
Weather Patterns Associated with a Cold Front
| Before Passing | While Passing | After is passes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winds | South Southwest | Gusty and changing | West Northwest-ish |
| Temperature | Warm | Sudden drop | Steadily dropping |
| Pressure | Falling steadily | Minimum-then sharp rise | |
| Clouds | Increasing Ci, Cs and Cb | Cb | Clearing with scattered Sc; some Cb in summer |
| Precipitation | Short period of showers | Heavy rain, thunder, lightning, hail | Showers, then clearing |
| Visibility | Fair to poor | Poor followed by improving | Good-possible showers |
| Dewpoint | High, remains steady | Sharp drop | Lowering |
Stationary Fronts
Stationary Front
- air flow parrelel on both sides
- doesn't move
- widespread clouds
- Precipitation light
Occluded fronts occur when a cold front overtakes a warm front. This often results from the merging of two cold fronts that overwhelm the warm front. The result is a weakening of the storm system that might otherwise occur.
- active cold front overtakes a warm front
- weather is complex
- precipitation associated with warm air
Weather Patterns Associated with a Occluded Front
| Before Passing | While Passing | After is passes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winds | Southeast-south | Variable | West-northwest |
| Temperature | Cold-cool-cold | Dropping-then rising | Colder-milder |
| Pressure | Usually falling | Low point | Usually rising |
| Clouds | In order Ci, Cs, As, Ns | Ns, sometimes Tcu and Cb | Light to moderate precipitation-clearing |
| Precipitation | Light, moderate or heavy | Continuous light, moderate or heavy | Light to moderate, then clearing |
| Visibility | Poor | Poor | Improving |
| Dewpoint | Steady | Slight drop | Slight drop, may rise if warm occluded |
Dry Lines
A dry line is a line that separates a moist air mass from a dry air mass. It can also be referred to as a Dew Point Front because the dew point temperature changes drastically across the dry line. The most common place to find a Dry line is just east of the Rockie mountains separating the Dry air that comes over the mountains from the moist air coming off of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. Dry lines are extremely rare east of the Mississippi River.
Front Symbols
| types |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| types |  |  |
Precipitation and clouds
Water in the Atmosphere
The atmosphere of our planet is laden with water. In temperate and tropical regions, water exists mainly in liquid form. In the poles and higher latitudes, much of Earth’s water exists as ice locked away in alpine or continental glaciers. The physical composition of Earth’s atmosphere consists primarily of water vapor.
Humidity refers to the amount of water vapor that is in the air. This water vapor exists in a gaseous state. The process in which water changes from a liquid into a gaseous state is evaporation. Each water molecule that becomes water vapor also takes with it a parcel of heat energy from the surface it evaporates from cooling the surface(evaporative cooling). Evaporative cooling explains why you may feel a chill after swimming as water evaporates off the surface of your skin, taking with it heat from your body.
During the spring when the amount of daylight is increasing and the declination of the hemisphere is tilting towards the Sun, the intensity of solar radiation increases causing ice crystals in the upper troposphere to melt and fall as rain. As the water is exposed to increased solar radiation it evaporates and returns to the atmosphere in a gaseous state- as water vapor. The humidity of the atmosphere increases as spring changes to summer.
To measure water vapor we would use an instrument known as a hygrometer. Measurements of humidity are often expressed as a percentage, which is termed relative humidity. The Complete saturation of the air (100% relative humidity) occurs when the amount of water vapor in the air equals the amount of water vapor that the air can hold.
Precipitation
Any form of water that falls to earth the major ones are
- rain
- snow
- sleet
- hail
Liquid Precipitation
Mist consists of droplets less than .05mm in diameter. Drizzle is anything larger than.05mm but less than .5mm larger than 0.5mm across is rain. Most raindrops are not larger than 5mm across because of air drag effects that would tear larger droplets into smaller droplets as they descended through the air.
Frozen Precipitation
Snowflakes fall as ice crystals and have diameters of between 1mm and 2cm.
Graupel is around 5mm fall as soft and mushy ice
Sleet is similar to graupel, but it is smaller really nothing more than frozen raindrops.
Hail is larger than 5mm and is a rounded clump of hard ice and is usually associated with thunderstorms
Another variation is rime a deposit of ice that freezes out of the air onto a surface that has a temperature below 0°C.
Virga
precipitation that falls from clouds- but never reaches the surface of the Earth. This is termed virga.
At high altitudes, precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before they melt and evaporate before reaching the ground because of compressional heating that occurs as a result of increasing air pressure closer to the ground (remember- air that is compressed becomes warmer).
Streams of falling precipitation that never reach the ground make the clouds appear to have commas attached to them as aloft winds push the bottom ends of the virga into angles. Virgas can be hazardous to pilots because the pockets of extremely cold air descending from the upper atmosphere can create microbursts.
Clouds
Formation of clouds
Clouds are nothing more than small droplets of water and ice crystals that clump together within the atmosphere. They may produce precipitation in the form of liquid water and/or ice crystals that fall to the Earth’s surface. Rising air is an important process in the formation of clouds. As air rises, it expands causing it to lose heat energy and voila the temperature of the air decreases. The water vapor molecules that are in the air also increase the humidity of the air until it is saturated (100% relative humidity).
Excess water vapor condenses changing from a gas into a liquid on large aerosol particles in the atmosphere if the relative humidity is not in excess of 100%. When the atmosphere cools, it will reach the point at which the air is saturated with water vapor and can precipitate.This is the dew point. The dew point is defined as the temperature to which a particle of air would need to be cooled in order to reach this point of saturation. The air’s capacity to hold water vapor is temperature dependent. Warmer air tends to hold more moisture, while cooler air holds less.
The dew point and relative humidity can be measured using a psychrometer, a weather measurement tool consisting of two identical thermometers mounted side by side. One of the thermometers- the dry bulb measures air temperature. The other thermometer- the wet bulb- has a damp wick wrapped around it allowing it to measure any decrease in temperature. This indicates the maximum amount of cooling that can result from evaporation.
To use a psychrometer, it needs to be exposed to a flow of air by slinging it around on a handle. The humidity of the air is directly proportional to the amount of moisture evaporating off the wet bulb. If the two thermometers have identical readings, than no evaporation has taken place and the air is saturated with water vapor. The more significant the measured difference between the two thermometers, the drier the air and the lower the level of humidity.
Cloud formation is closely related to the cooling of humid air masses. As water vapor expands- it cools in temperature. Likewise, when air is compressed- it heats up. This change in temperature caused by the expansion or contraction of gases is known as adiabatic temperature change. This is a cooling or warming of the air caused by expansion or contraction and not by the increase or irradiation of heat.
The effects of adiabatic temperature change in Earth’s atmosphere can be dramatic. Air sinking down from higher latitudes is warmed by an increase in atmospheric pressure as it contracts. Likewise, warm air that climbs in altitude is under less pressure and cools as it expands. When this air is enriched in water vapor and cooled down to its dew point, condensation and cloud formation can take place.
Cloud ID
For the event you need to be able to identify clouds and weather that come with each cloud. Cloud prefixes tell you where the clouds are located.
"cirr-", like cirrus clouds, can be located at high levels
"alto-", like altostratus, can be found at middle levels
Cloud types are classifies by height of the ground these are three of the classifications
- Upper Clouds
- 9000 meters
- Cirus clouds
- Intermediate Clouds
- 3000-7000 meters
- Altocumulus
- Lower Clouds
- 2000 meters
- Nimbostratus
- High Fogs
- Under 1000 meters
This is a list identifying which clouds go in which layer. I found these from "The cloud book: how to understand the skies" by Richard Hamblyn
- Low Clouds
- Stratocumulus
- Stratus
- Cumulus
- Cumulonimbus
- Medium Clouds
- Altocumulus
- Altostratus
- Nimbostratus
- High clouds
- Cirrus
- Cirrocumulus
- Cirrostratus
Clouds
| Cloud Pic | Name | description |
|---|---|---|
 | Stratus Cloud | low clouds,Below 2,000 m. gray fog like clouds, flat |
 | Stratocumulus | low-level clouds that develop below 2,000 meters that generally appear as low, lumpy layers of clouds.
usually fair-weather clouds sometimes accompanied by low-intensity precipitation such as drizzle. vary in color from dark to light gray with breaks of clear sky in between them |
 | Nimbostratus | dark, low level (below 2,000 meters) clouds that are usually accompanied by light to moderately falling levels of precipitation.
thick enough to block out the Sun entirely(gloomy day clouds) In the winter months they may also contain ice particles and snow. |
 | Altostratus | gray/blue gray cloud covers entire sky over large area |
 | Altocumulos | ppear as parallel bands or perhaps as rounded masses at medium altitudes (2,000-6,000m)
white, fluffy appearance (commonly nicknamed ‘sheep-back’ clouds because of their wooly appearance) usually form by the convection of air in an unstable layer aloft because of the gradual lifting of air in advance of an approaching cold front |
 | Cirrostratus | sheet-like, high level clouds
composed of ice crystals. Cirrostratus clouds can cover the entire sky and be up to several thousand feet thick relatively transparent as the Sun and Moon can easily be seen through them. often form when a broad layer of air is lifted by a large-scale convergence as shown in the diagram below. Cause of halos |
 | Cirrocumulus | round white puffs |
 | Cirrus | Cirrus clouds are found at high altitudes (greater than 6,00 meters) and appear as thin and often wispy sheets with a feathery appearance. Cirrus clouds are usually composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of super cooled water droplets. Cirrus clouds are usually fair weather clouds and point in the direction of air movement at their elevation. |
 | Cumulus | looks like a piece of floating cotton life span of around 40 minutes |
 | Cumulonimbus | thunderstorm cloud forms by Cumulus cloud growth
convective updrafts sometimes at speeds of over 50 knots |
 | Lenticular Cloud | A lens shaped cloud |
 | Mammatus Clouds | baggy clouds
seen after thundersttorms can mean tornadoes |
 | Contrails | Jet produced clouds trail of water vapor |
 | Nacreous Clouds | soft pearly looking |
Great Cloud page
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/cldtyp/home.rxml
Great Cloud book is "The cloud book: how to understand the skies" by Richard Hamblyn
Phenomena
There are many weather phenomena here they are the major ones
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Mirages | occur when light is refracted to produce an image of an object or the sky where it is not. |
| Haloes | Like rainbows, haloes are formed around the Sun due to moisture being refracted from the Sun’s rays in the upper atmosphere. |
| Belt of Venus | occurs during dusty evenings when a band of pinkish or brownish sky will appear between the sky and the horizon. |
| Aurora Borealis | charged particles from the Sun that have reached the Earth’s upper atmosphere and become excited |
| Mammatus Clouds | are often associated with a storm front |
| St Elmo’s Fire | luminous plasma that appears like fire on objects, such as the masts of ships or lightning rods, in an area that is electrically charged during a thunderstorm |
| Green Ray | occurs very briefly before total sunset and after sunrise. |
| Fire Rainbow | A fire rainbow is an extremely rare phenomenon that occurs only when the sun is high allowing its light to pass through high-altitude cirrus clouds with a high content of ice crystals. |
Lightning
Usually associated with thunderstorms and comes from the development of cumulonimbus clouds.
The first process in the generation of lightning however is the ejection of charged particles from the sun called the solar wind, causing the Earth to acquire an electric charge in the upper layers of its atmosphere, particularly the ionosphere. This charge attempts to neutralize itself through any available path. Lightning occurs when there is a charge separation in a cumulonimbus cloud. As a thunderstorm grows, electrical charges build up within a cloud with the positive charges above the ground and the negative charges at the bottom of the cloud. The attraction between the positive and negative charges of the cloud becomes strong enough to overcome the air’s resistance to electrical flow. This sends a strong shaft of negatively charged air towards the ground where a spark surges up from the ground towards it. As they race towards one another, they connect, completing the electrical circuit that allows the flow of electrons. Most lightning strikes last about a quarter of a second.
Weather Technology
Instruments
| Instrument | Uses |
|---|---|
| Actinometer | measures solar radiation |
| Barometer | measures pressure |
| Barograph | used to make a continuous recording of atmospheric pressure |
| Ceilometer | record ceiling |
| Evaporimeter | measures evaporation of water |
| Hygrometer | measures moisture content of gass |
| psychrometer | measures relative humidity |
| radiosonde | group of instruments for measurement and radio transmission of |
| rawinsondes | unit for use in weather balloons that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them to a fixed receiver |
| rain gauge | measures rainfall |
| thermometer | measures temperature |
| Wind vane | show wind direction |
Forcasting
There are many ways to forecast, but the simplest way is to take today's weather and say that tomorrow is going to be the same. This can be called the Persistence method.
The next method can be called the trends method. It relies on mathematics to get the forecast. This method involves being able to get a accurate measerment of the speed at which the weather system is moving and plugging the numbers into the speed formula (S=d/t) and determining the time at which the system will be at your position.
The next method can be called the trends method it relies on mathematics to forecast. This method involves being able to get a accurate measerment of the speed at which the weather system is moving and putting the numbers into(S=d/t) and determining the time at which the system will be at your position Here is an example of the trend model:
The Climatology Method is another easy way of forecasting. This method involves averaging weather statistics accumulated over many years to make a forecast.
The Analog Method is a more complicated method of producing a forecast. It involves examining today's forecast scenario and remembering a day in the past when the weather scenario looked very similar. Than you would predict that the weather in this forecast will behave similar to the day in the past.
Radar
Before we get into any satalite imagery or the like you need to know Radar.
Radar is a very important part of todays Meteorologists it gives us a chance to have early warning of approaching storms and rain so lets start with the basics
Radar Basics
Radar is a simple concept, you have a beam you send out and it reflects back to an antennae that collects the beam and sends it via wire to a reciever. the return signals are arranged to produce a radar image.
So when the Beam of energy (electromagnetic) hits it target it is reflected in all directions some going up some going down some going back toward its origin point we are only really interested in the returning energy. This returning energy is much weaker when it is returning than when it left. The size of the reflecting particle determines the strength of the return signal this means that the larger the particle the stronger the signal and the smaller the particle the weaker the signal. Also the more particles there are the stronger the return signal because the returning beams combine to form a stronger signal
The amount/size of the reflectivity is proportional to the number and size of the drops encountered by the electromagnetic pulse. Because of this high reflectivity normally means heavy precipitation while low reflectivity means lighter precipitation.
Wavelengths
Since Radar uses electromagnetic pulses or electromagnetic waves so that means that wavelength will affect the signal and pulses. The two wavelengths are short and long wavelengths. Short wavelengths are good at measuring small particles like dust and cloud droplets. However the short wavelength also makes this wavelength easily absorbed by the the materials it reflects off of (this is called attenuation). This feature makes it hard to measure disant targets.
Long wavelengths have the advantage that absorption by the particles is reduced this feature makes this wavelength very useful for looking at severe storms and other large scale/distance weather. Long wave radar are what is used im nost Dopplar radars like the National Weather Service's WSR-88D Doppler radars
How To read weather maps/satellite imagery
We are going to start off with the very basic weather map the kind that you will most likely see at competition:
- Start by identifying the different pressure zones on the map. Above it is already done but if it wasn't marked look for sections that have a circle with a very high or low pressure.
- Look for fronts. This can be done by looking at the station ball symbols. (those are the yellow circles with the tails the tails indicate wind direction) look and find a sudden change in wind direction/pressure that will normally indicate a front. I marked where I believe a front to be.
There are many lines on this map. Each one means something:
- The blue lines are isobars which mean that they are lines of constant pressure.
- The yellow circles with "tails" are called station ball symbols of station models; they are explained in the next section.
Something else you might see on a weather map is a isotherm, which is a line of constant temperature.
Station Models
This image is a station model. It can tell you many different things, like wind speed, wind direction, temperature, dew point, current weather, cloud cover, and pressure, given that you know how to read and interpret it. Some symbols have more information than others on them, but here is a basic overview:
- The 48 is the current temperature
- The 45 is the dew point
- The "whatever" that is in between the two numbers is the current weather. On this one it is a light rain.
This is what tells you information about the wind. The direction the stick faces shows the wind direction, and how many lines on the end of it show the wind speed. A half line signifies five knots, a full line ten knots, and a bold line 50 knots.
This indicates how much cloud cover there is. There are nine choices:
| Picture | Meaning | Picture | Meaning | Picture | Meaning | Picture | Meaning | Picture | Meaning | Picture | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Clear |  | 1/8 |  | 1/4 |  | 3/8 |  | 1/2 |  | Missing |
 | 5/8 |  | 3/4 |  | 7/8 |  | overcast |  | Obscured |
Symbols
this is from here:http://www.sover.net/~redcamp/wxplegend.gif
another symbol sheet in case you want two examples
Rawinsondes/Radiosondes
Rawinsondes and Radiosondes are interconnected they both are part of the weather equiptment luanched in weather balloons.
A radiosonde or rawinsonde will normally record and "observe"
- Pressure
- Altitude
- Location (coodinates)
- Temperature
- Wind speed and direction
METAR
This is a way that meteorologists convey what is happening at a point on Earth. It is a very abbreviated language. Here is an example of METAR:
KCLL 312253Z 14007G15KT 10SM CLR 31/15 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP120 T03110150
all of this means something, you just have to know what the abbreviations mean.
| Abreviation | Explanation | What is says | |
|---|---|---|---|
| KCLL | this tells you where the METAR station is located | ||
| 312253Z | this tells you the date and time in zulu* | this says that it is the 31st of the month and is 22:53 zulu | |
| 14007G15KT | wind direction and speed | this says that the wind is from 140degrees at 7kt with gusts to 15 kts | |
| 10SM | visibility | this says there are 10 statute miles of visibily | |
| CLR | clear skies | ||
| 31/15 | temperature and Dewpoint in Celsius | ||
| A2990 | inches of mercury(29.90) | to get millibars multiple by 33.863 | |
| RMK | Remarks | this is where the station will post claritive data | |
| A02 | type of automated station | AO1; automated station without a precipitation descriminator. AO2; automated station with precipitation discriminator | |
| SLP120 | sea level pressure | ||
| T03110150 | acually temperature | this says that the temperature is actually 31.1 and the dewpoint is 15 |
Zulu is a time measurement based off of a 24-hour clock
here is a more in depth METAR guide: http://www.met.tamu.edu/class/metar/quick-metar.html
Stuve Diagrams
A Stuve diagram is the compilation of data gathered in Weather Balloon flights
As you can see the image above is extremely cluttered and hard to understand so lets break it down.
this image shows the Stuve diagram at is most basic level. The left Y-axis shows air pressure and elevation(in meters)
The X-axis shows temperature in Kelvin and well as Celsius
Now that we have the X and Y axes in order lets talk about the yellow horizontal and vertical lines that looks similar to graph paper except are not constant. The vertical lines represent isotherms or lines of constant temperature and the horizontal lines represent isobars or lines of constant pressure.
Since we have the Axes and The lines down direct your view to the "Barbs" along the right side show wind speed and direction they are on the same scale as the Station Model symbols.
Now that everything is clear lets get to what i bet you have been staring at since you first started, The Red Line. well the Red Line shows the relatinship between air temperature and altitude.
As you can see more information has been added the dashed green lines and the dashed Black line
The dashed green line shows represents the saturation mixing ratio which is the amount of water vapor needed in a parcel of air ( the amount needed to make a cloud)
The Black line shows how temperature of Dew Point changes with altitude
Since it makes it more interesting lets add yet more elements to this chart. These are the Yellow line and also the Solid diagonal lines.
The yellow line show the temperature of a parcel of air as it is moved through the atmosphere The solid diagonal lines are called dry adiabats and show the rate at which unsaturated of dry air will cool down as it rises up through the atmosphere. at a rate of about 10˚C/km.
If an air parcel is initially unsaturated it will cool off at the dry adiabatic lapse rate as it rises (note that the yellow line is parallel to the solid diagonal lines).
So let us assume the parcel of air starts off at an altitude of 500m (with a temperature of 22˚C. If it then gets lifted up it will cool off at 10ºC for every km it rises. This is shown by the yellow line. At an altitude of 2000m it will have cooled to a temperature of about 7˚C. At this point it has cooled down enough that it is now saturated.
Why does this happen you ask ?
Remember that we can find out the saturation mixing ratio for any temperature and pressure from the dashed green lines on the graph. Well, at 800 mb and 7˚C (where the yellow line ends) the dashed green line which would go through this point would have a value of 8 g/kg. This is the saturation mixing ratio for this point. But this was also our actual mixing ratio for this air parcel. So now the air has cooled down enough that the actual mixing ratio is the same as the saturation mixing ratio. The altitude at which this happens is the lifting condensation level (LCL). This is the point at which moisture contained in a rising parcel of air can begin to condense. this is shown in the list of data at the right-hand side of the figure. Look under “PARCEL”, then find “LCL:800”. This indicates that the lifted air parcel would reach its lifting condensation level at 800 mb.
so we finally have amde it to the last part of the broken up stuve diagram. they are the solid green lines which we refer to as saturated adiabats. These show the rate at which saturated air cools as it rises.
The lines are somewhat curved because the saturated adiabatic lapse rate fluctuates between 2˚C/km to nearly 10˚/km(the dry adiabatic lapse rate), depending moisture content of the parcel of air
images above come from this site
Meteograms
A meteogram is a mix of station ball symbols and metar
The graph along the top of the Meteogram shows temperature and Dew point. temperature is the top line(green) and dew point is the bottom line (blue)
The abreviation EXTT (extreme temperature) shows the maximum and minimum temperatures which are plotted below the chart at specific reporting times. 12Z and 18Z are generally low temperatures and 0Z and 6Z are high temperatures.
The WX shows the current weather data at the time of data collection
SNWDP would show snow-depth if there where any.
PREC would tell you precipitation in inches
VIS tells you visability in miles
WGST would tell you windgusts
WIND (winds and cloud cover) - This is same sympols wind and cloud cover symbols used in the station models
Cloud chart will give cloud layer information. The vertical axis is height of cloud base in feet. The layers are plotted as horizontal lines.
- Clear skies are plotted as a 'C'. S
- cattered cloud layers (1/8th to 3/8th coverage) are plotted as a single short dash.
- Broken cloud layers (4/8th to 7/8th coverage) are plotted as two short dashes. *Overcast layers are plotted as a single long dash.
The actual cloud ceiling is displayed below the chart in 100s of feet if the ceiling is below 10,000 feet.
Pressure chart - This chart plots sea level pressure (or altimeter setting if pressure not reported) in millibars.
Beaufort Scale
| Force | Wind Speed(knots) | Classification | Appearance | Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | >1 | Calm | Calm, smoke rises vertically | 
|
| 1 | 1-3 | Light Air | Smoke drift indicates wind direction,wind vanes still | 
|
| 2 | 4-6 | Light Breeze | Wind felt on face, leaves rustle,wind vanes begin to move | 
|
| 3 | 7-10 | Gentle Breeze | Leaves and small twigs constantly moving, light flags extended | 
|
| 4 | 11-16 | Moderate Breeze | Dust, leaves, and loose paper lifted, small tree branches move | 
|
| 5 | 17-21 | Fresh Breeze | Small trees begin to sway | 
|
| 6 | 22-27 | Strong Breeze | Larger tree branches moving, whistling in wires | 
|
| 7 | 28-33 | Near Gale | Whole trees moving, resistance felt walking against wind | 
|
| 8 | 34-40 | Gale | Whole trees in motion, resistance felt walking against wind | 
|
| 9 | 41-47 | Strong Gale | Slight structural damage occurs, slate blows off roofs | 
|
| 10 | 48-55 | Storm | Seldom experienced on land, trees broken or uprooted, "considerable structural damage" | 
|
| 11 | 56-63 | Violent Storm | 
| |
| 12 | 64+ | HURRICANE | lokk up the great hurricane of 1900(see also katrina) | 
|
Referance
Terms To Know
Some basic terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Absolute Humidity | Mass of water vapor in a volume of air |
| Absolutely Stable Atmosphere | Atmospheric condition that occurs when the environmental lapse rate is less than moist adiabatic rate |
| Absolutely unstable atmosphere | Atmospheric condition that occurs when the environmental lapse rate is greater than the dry adiabatic rate |
| Adiabatic process | Possess that takes place without transfer of heat between systems,compression results in heating,expansion results in cooling |
| Air Mass | A large body of air that has similar characteristics throughout it |
| Air Pressure | pressure exerted by a mass of air at a given point |
| Albedo | Percent of radiation being reflected by substance |
| Black body | hypothetical object that absorbs all radiation that strikes it |
| Celsius scale | Temperature scale where zero=freezing and 100=boiling |
| Cloud Burst | Sudden heavy rainfall |
| Cut off low | Cold upper-level low that has dissipated out of basic westerly flows |
| Daily Range of temperatures | Difference between maximum and minimum temperature |
| Derecho | Strong damaging straight line winds associated with a thunderstorm |
| Doppler lidar | A radar that uses light beams to determine velocity of objects by using Doppler shift |
| Doppler shift | Change in frequency of waves that occurs when emmiter or observer is moving toward or away from each other |
| Downburst | severe downdraft that can be experienced beneath a severe thunderstorm |
| Dry adiabatic Rate | rate if change in temperature in a rising or desending unsaturated air parcel.rate is about 10oper 1000m |
| Eddy | A small volume of air that acts differently than surrounding air |
| Flash Flood | Flood that starts with little or no advanced warning |
| Geostophic wind | a theoretical horizontal wind blowing in a straight path parelel to isobars or contours at a constant speed |
| Heat Capacity | The ratio of heat absorbed by a system to the corresponding temperature change |
| Isobar | Line connecting lines of equal pressure |
| Lake Breeze | Wind blowing off the surface of a lake |
| Local winds | Winds that normally blow over a small area due to regional effects |
| Land Breeze | coastal breeze blows from land to sea |
| Lapse Rate | Rate at which an atmospheric variable decreases with height |
| Lee-side low | storm system that form on downwind side of a mountain chain |
| Low level jet streams | Jet streams that form near earths surface(below 2km)at speeds less than 60kts |
| Macroburst | Strong downdraft greater than 4km wide that can occur beneath a severe thunderstorm |
| Macroclimate | climate of a large area say a country |
| Nuclear winter | the dark cold and miserable conditions that could be brought on be a nuclear war |
| Parcel of air | Small body of air a few meters wide that is used to explain behavior of air |
| pressure | Force per unit of area |
| Pressure gradient | rate of decrease of pressure per unit of horizontal distance |
| Prevailing Wind | Wind direction most frequently observed during a period of time |
| Radiational cooling | process by which the earth's surface releases Infrared energy |
| Ridge | an elongated area of high atmospheric pressure |
| Rotors | turbulent eddies that form downwind of a mountain chain creating hazardous eddies |
| Sea Breeze | Coastal local wind that blows from sea to land |
| Sea Level Pressure | atmospheric pressure at mean sea level |
| Sensible heat | Heat we can feel and measure with a thermometer |
| Sensible temperature | Sensation of temperature That the human body feels in contrast to actual temperature |
| Snow Squall | Intermittent heavy shower of snow that reduces visibility |
| Specific heat | ratio of heat absorbed to the change in temperature |
| Station Pressure | Actual air pressure at the observing station |
| Streamline | line that shows wind flow patterns |
| Tcu | Abbreviation for towering cumulus cloud |
| Teleconnections | Linkage between weather changes occurring in widely different parts of the world |
| Temperature inversion | increase of air temperature with height |
| Thermal | small rising parcel of air caused by unequal heating of earth's surface |
| Thermal Circulation | Air flow resulting from heating and cooling of air |
| Trace of precipitation | amount of precipitation less than .025 cm |
| Urban Heat Island | increased air temperature over urban regions compared to the surrounding countryside |
| Weather | state of the atmosphere at a certain point |
| Zonal Wind Flow | wind that has a predominant west to east component |
| Isobars | Lines of constant pressure |
| Isotherms | Lines of constant temperature |
Links
This is a great meteorology site and some of the images on this page have come from here
