From deciding the best day for a picnic, to the devastating effects of
hurricanes and typhoons, the weather impacts our lives on a daily basis.
Although new techniques allow us to forecast the weather with increasing
accuracy, most people do not realize the vast global movements and
forces which result in their day-to-day weather.
In this Very Short Introduction, Storm Dunlop explains what weather is
and how it differs from climate, discussing what causes weather, and how
we measure it. Analyzing the basic features and properties of the
atmosphere, he shows how these are directly related to the weather
experienced on the ground, and to specific weather phenomena and extreme
weather events. He describes how the global patterns of temperature and
pressure give rise to the overall circulation within the atmosphere, the
major wind systems, and the major oceanic currents, and how features
such as mountains and the sea affect local weather. He also looks at
examples of extreme and dangerous weather, such as of tropical cyclones
(otherwise known as hurricanes and typhoons), describing how "Hurricane
Hunters" undertake the dangerous task of flying through them.
We measure weather in a number of ways: observations taken on the land
and sea; observations within the atmosphere; and measurements from
orbiting satellites. Dunlop concludes by looking at how these
observations have been used to develop increasingly sophisticated long
and short-range weather forecasting, including ensemble forecasting.
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