The unstable Polar front
We now know that a Polar front is the boundary which separates warm tropical air from the colder air near the pole. All depressions form on this Polar front, because …
Course: Come Rain or Shine: Understanding the Weather
Weather forecast game
Before you start the course, we’d like you to have a go at trying to predict the weather in Reading, in our game hosted on the Royal Meteorological Society website. …
Tropical Cyclones and their Development
Of all the weather systems on Earth, tropical cyclones produce some of the most intense and damaging weather. Known as Hurricanes in the Atlantic, Typhoons in the Pacific and Cyclones …
Monsoons
The word ‘monsoon’ tends to be used very loosely to describe any particularly prolonged spell of wet weather. In fact the word has a very specific meteorological meaning. It is …
El Niño and La Niña
Every few years a very noticeable change comes about in the temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The eastern side, which is usually the coolest part, warms up considerably, particularly …
Rainfall in the Tropics
Earlier this week we looked at the radiation budget of the Earth, that is the difference between the incoming energy from the Sun and the outgoing infra-red energy lost to …
Thank you and goodbye
Congratulations on completing the course! Hopefully, by the end of this week you should feel that you are happier: explaining some of the processes which transfer energy through the Earth …
Sylvia’s solution
In this video Sylvia demonstrates the solutions to this Week’s practical activity; the isoline drawing exercise in Step 3.11. We have also provided the solutions for the exercise on a …
Weather forecast game
This week is your last chance to submit your prediction in the weather forecasting game, or to see if you can improve on your score from the previous week. If …
Rotating fluid dynamics
Now that you have seen the demonstration of the Coriolis effect in Week 1, let’s look at how this tank of water represents the atmosphere rotating with the earth. Pete …
Drawing isolines
In this activity you’ll put into practice some of the knowledge you have learnt so far. You’ll be drawing various isolines on the maps we’ve provided, which will further help …
Guide to weather symbols
The above is a typical simplified weather symbol from a chart of weather observations. Let’s look at some other symbols which you may come across when looking at weather reports. …
Global atmospheric and oceanic circulation
As we mentioned in Week 1 of the course, mid-latitude depressions are one way in which the Earth moves heat from the warm Tropics to the colder Poles. Together with …
The effect of people
Carbon Dioxide (C02) concentrations in the atmosphere, increased by over 40% from 278 ppm (parts per million) in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015. Figure 1: The diagram above shows …
Changes over time
Let’s look at the Sun first, and specifically the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. There are three ways in which the Earth’s orbit changes over time, known as …