|
|
What is Meteorology?
Meteorology is the study of the weather. Knowing about tomorrow's weather
helps people around the world be better prepared for the activities that
lie ahead in their life Today, airplane pilots, ships captains, kids going
to school, parents driving to work, skiers hoping for sport, and surfers
awaiting a big wave all are interested in knowing what's up with the
weather.
Weather watching is actually an ancient science, one that has passed on
from generation to generation in oral societies. Often these experts were
called Rain makers. Their skill in not only predicting, but purportedly
actually BRINGING rain was held in high esteem by their peoples. Even in
recent times, Native Americans at ceremonies have been seen to call rain
clouds to them from across a valley or over a mountain. There are
mysteries to this skill. But there is also a science at work learning to
predict and better understand weather.
Where does weather come from ?
At the most basic level, weather is caused by two primary forces
: precipitation and wind. Precipitation is the moisture drawn up out of
our oceans that forms clouds. The more moisture drawn up, the darker the
cloud. The darker the cloud the denser the water molecules. As the winds
blow the clouds toward the land, the clouds are attracted to mountain
slopes with trees, and most often the rainiest places on earth or forested
mountain tops. Sometimes a mountain can essentially steal all of the rain
out of the clouds on one side, while its other/back side remains
completely dry. Many deserts are lands that sit in a rain shadow where
little cloud moisture ever comes. No matter where you live, the quality of
the water in the ocean effects your life because it is where your rain
comes from.
What about wind ?
Winds are most simply understood as the movement of air in our
atmosphere. This movement is often caused by the solar-heated land warming
one body of air, while the sea or colder land cools another body of air
that sits above it. Where these warmed and cooled bodies of air meet, they
have to decide who goes under and who goes over, the warm air tries to
rise and the cold air tries to sink. This is the wind at work - warm and
cool air pushing one another around, the cooler air heading down and the
warm air heading up. It is always going on at different rates in different
places. Winds can bring temperature drops or rises that dramatically
effect life on the land and at sea. The winds can change direction so
suddenly that they can tear the mast off a ship, turn a small brush fire
into a raging inferno, or make a mountain pass to dangerous to drive. The
winds bring us rain, or blow it past us with out a drop. And when they are
most threatening, we have hurricanes and tornadoes circling at hundreds of
miles an hour, lifting up and tearing apart everything in their path.
Who knows what is coming ?
The most comprehensive weather service in the world is the U.S. National
Weather Service. This organization is a division of NOAA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the US Department of
Commerce. The National Weather Service funds weather stations all over the
country and up in the sky that gather weather data and send it to central
computers. The NOAA computers that turn the data into wonderful maps and
charts that are used by weather casters on television, sailors heading out
to sea, mountain climbers considering a dangerous ascent, farmers making
major crop decisions, airlines, and almost everyone else dependent on
knowing the weather ahead.
NOAA gathers its data from weather stations that could be on a ship at
sea, on a GOES satellite (Geostationary Operational Environmental
Satellite ) in our upper atmosphere, at a radar station on a remote
island, on a buoy floating off the coast, or from a station on top of our
highest peaks. All of these locations gather and transmit data about the
weather to help the NOAA scientists predict any dangerous weather that may
be coming. With these predications, NOAA can save lives by getting people
out of harms way when a tornado, hurricane, or flood is expected.
What is online ?
You can access weather information online from many different sources. You
can read real NOAA charts and maps. You can tap into weather in different
places using weather search engines. You can even see the real weather
different places thanks to everyday people who have mounted video cameras
on tops of buildings that have an Internet connection and feed e view of
the weather to any viewer. You can learn about different cloud types, and
learn what their appearance most often means will happen next in the
weather pattern. All of these resources will help you learn to understand,
prepare for, or even forecast the weather.
|