Course: Come Rain or Shine: Understanding the Weather

Watch Pete launch a weather balloon and explain how the radiosonde it carries can be used to measure the temperature, humidity and pressure profile of the whole atmosphere.

Measuring the speed and direction of the wind is one of many practical ways you can investigate the weather in your surroundings. In this video, Sylvia demonstrates how to use …

In this video, Janet Barlow, Professor of Environmental Physics in the Department of Meteorology demonstrates how you can measure the speed and direction of the wind using a bubble machine. …

In Week 1 you explored how rain forms when air cools, the rate of condensation becomes faster than the rate at which water is evaporating and cloud droplets form. If …

In this activity, your task is to work out what the weather was like in the UK, from the three weather maps provided below. Your answers must be based, only, …

Now you’ve completed the quiz in the previous Step, take a look at the table below which summarises what is happening to the air from the four major air masses …

Let’s take a step back and think about the properties and characteristics of the air reaching the UK. Let’s start with the concept of air masses and consider the properties …

In this second exercise, your task is to identify what the weather is currently doing in each of the marked examples (Figures 1–4). Don’t worry about how the weather might …

In this video, Pete uses a turntable and a ball to simulate the effect of the Coriolis force. The ball is deflected on a curved trajectory, across a rotating surface, …

In Step 1.10 you explored why cloud and rain are associated with a depression. But why are they low pressure systems, and how do we get wind? First of all …

The winter of 2013/14 brought 12 major mid-latitude depressions to the UK. It was the stormiest period of weather experienced by the UK for 143 years. It was the wettest …

Congratulations on reaching the end of Week 1! Hopefully, you feel that you have a better understanding of the weather systems which bring the UK, and other mid-latitude countries most …

Join Sylvia to find out how you got on this week. In this film Sylvia demonstrates the solutions to the weather map exercises in the previous two Steps, and explains …

Now that you have completed Week 1, you may like to turn your hand to trying to predict the weather. Your task is to try and predict 4 elements of …

Please note you may find some of this material challenging. If you find yourself getting stuck don’t worry – help is on hand. Raise your questions in the comments area …