What is meteorology?

• Meteorology is the science that studies

atmospheric phenomena, especially those
that relate to weather. Meteorologists who
forecast the weather rely on thousands of
weather stations located around the world,
both on land and at sea.
 HISTORY
In Bible times - "˜You are able to interpret the appearance of the sky but the sign of the times you
cannot interpret.” Book of Matthew

1441 -King Sejong’s son, Prince Munjong, invented the first standardized rain gauge

1450 - Leone Battista Alberti developed a swinging-plate anemometer, and is known as the
first anemometer.

1607 - Galileo Galilei constructs a thermoscope

1643 -Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer,Torricelli noticed that air pressure changes in
accordance with changes in the weather. In fact a drop in pressure would often signal that a
storm was coming.

1644 - hygrometer was invented

1662 - Sir Christopher Wren invented the mechanical, self-emptying, tipping bucket rain gauge.

1714 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer

1742 - Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer, proposed the 'centigrade' temperature scale, the
predecessor of the current Celsius scale
1765 - daily measurements of air pressure, moisture content, wind
speed and direction began to be made. This was first done by
French scientist Laurent Lavoisier who stated,"With all of this
information it is almost always possible to predict the weather one
or two days ahead with reasonable accuracy.”

1783 - the first hair hygrometer is demonstrated by Horace-Bénédict

de Saussure.

1806 - Francis Beaufort introduced his system for classifying wind

speeds

1854 - French warship and 38 merchant vessels sank in a fierce storm

off the Crimean port of Balaklava

April 1960 - launch of the first successful weather satellite, TIROS-1,

marked the beginning of the age where weather information
became available globally.
 ELEMENTS OF
METEOROLOGY
Clouds
Rain
Wind
Humidity
Instruments
 Clouds
The cloudy part of the atmosphere lies below an
invisible ‘lid’ called the tropopause. Clouds
cannot penetrate this top that is put on the
weather and about the only time when we
actually can see its effect is when thunderclouds
spread their anvils under it. The layer below the
tropopause is called the troposphere and all
weather processes of interest to us occur in the
troposphere.
 Rain
 Rain is the precipitation of liquid drops
of water. There are also other forms of
precipitation such as snow, sleet and
hail. Raindrops generally have a
diameter greater than 0.5 mm (0.02
in). They range in size up to about 3
mm (about 0.13 in) in diameter, and
their rate of fall increases, up to 7.6 m
(25 ft) per sec with their size.
 There are generally three types of
rainfall: orographic rain (also known
as relief rain), convectional
rain and frontal/cyclonic rain.
Types of rainfall

What are the

different
types of rain
and where do
they happen?
How it rains
1. Warm air rises

2. Air cools
3. Condensation
4. Clouds form
5. Rain
 1. Relief Rain

1. Warm moist
air from the sea

2. Forced to rise
over the
mountains
3. Air cools as it is
forced to rise
4. Condensation
5. Clouds form
6. Rain
 2. Convectional Rain

1. The sun heats

the ground
which heats
the air

2. Warm air rises

4. Air cools as it is
forced to rise

5. Condensation
6. Clouds form
7. Rain
 3. Frontal Rain
1. Mass of warm
air meets a
mass of colder
air

2. Lighter warm
air rises over
heavier cold air
3. Warm air cools

4. Condensation

5. Clouds form

6. Rain
 Wind
- is air in motion.
- It is usually the natural horizontal motion

of the atmosphere.
- Winds are produced by differences in

atmospheric pressure,.
 Breeze
 important factors in a location's prevailing
winds.
Sea breeze – movement of wind from sea to
land that occurs during daytime
Land breeze – movement of air from land to
sea that occurs during night time
 Humidity
Humidity is the measurement of the water
vapour content in the atmosphere. As water
evaporates from lakes, seas and oceans and
vegetation loses water through transpiration, the
humidity of the air increases.
The relative humidity of the air (ratio of the
amount of water vapour in the air to the
maximum amount of water vapour the air can
contain expressed as a percantage) is
measured using a hygrometer.
 Effects of humidity
Animals and plants
Humidity is one of the fundamental abiotic factors that defines any
habitat, and is a determinant of which animals and plants can thrive
in a given environment.
Human comfort
Humans are sensitive to humid air because the human body uses
evaporative cooling as the primary mechanism to regulate
temperature.
Electronics
Many electronic devices have humidity specifications, for example,
5% to 95%. At the top end of the range, moisture may increase the
conductivity of permeable insulators leading to malfunction.
Building construction
Traditional building designs typically had weak insulation, and it
allowed air moisture to flow freely between the interior and exterior
 Instruments
 The anemometer measures the
wind speed. It has three or four
horizontal arms pivoted on a
vertical shaft. Metal cups are
fixed to the end of the arms so
that when there is wind, the arms
rotate. The movements are
transmitted to the meter which
records the wind speed in meters
per second or km per hour or in
knots (1.85km/h).
 Barometer

 a class of instruments used to measure

atmospheric pressure.

 Hygrometer
 A hygrometer is made up of a
dry bulb thermometer and a wet
bulb thermometer. The dry bulb
thermometer is an ordinary liquid-
in-glass thermometer which
measures the actual temperature
of the air. The wet bulb
thermometer is the same as the
dry bulb thermometer, except that
it is wrapped with a piece of muslin
cloth which is kept moist by a
piece of wick dipped in water.
 Rain Gauge
 A rain gauge consists of an outer 13cm
diameter cylinder and an inner cylinder
with a jar. Rain is collected in the jar by
means of a funnel which has a tapered
end so that rain cannot easily evaporate.
 The rain gauge is sited in open space to
receive rain from all angles. It must be
located away from buildings and trees
that may shelter the raindrops. It is sunk
into the ground for stability and its rim is
30cm from the ground to prevent water
from splashing into it from the ground.
 Rainfall collected in the rain gauge is
then measured using a measuring
cylinder.
 Sunshine Recorder
The sunshine recorder records the duration
of sunshine at a place for a day. A glass ball
with a 10 cm diameter is mounted on a metal
frame. This glass ball focuses the sunshine a
sensitised card that is placed below it on the
metal frame. The sunrays make burn marks on
the card. Continuous burn marks show
continuous sunshine. Broken marks show
otherwise. At the end of the day, the card is
removed and the burn marks are totalled to get
the total duration of sunshine for the day in
hours and minutes. Lines drawn through
places having the same amount of sunshine
are called isohels.
 Thermometers
• Maximum Thermometer
contains mercury with a high boiling point and it
measures the maximum temperature of the day. The
mercury in the thermometer expands and pushes
the index up the tube when the day temperature
increases. However, when the temperature drops,
the mercury contracts, the index remains in position.
The maximum temperature is thus recorded and the
reading is taken at the end of the index closer to the
mercury. The instrument is reset by using a magnet
to draw the index back to the mercury.
• Minimum Thermometer
contains alcohol with a low freezing point and it
records the minimum temperature of the day. The
alcohol contracts and menicus of the alcohol pushes
the index down when the temperature drops. When
the temperature increases, the alcohol in the tube
expands, flows past the index but does not move
it.The minimum temperature is obtained by reading
the scale at the end of the index which is near the
minicus. The instrument is reset using a magnet to
draw the index up to the menicus.
 Wind Vane
• The wind vane consists of
a pointer that moves freely
on a vertical shaft. The four
cardinal points are tied to
the shaft beneath the
pointer. When the wind
blows, the pointer moves
and its head shows the
direction from which the
wind is blowing. The arrow
of the wind vane always
points in the direction from
the wind blows and the
wind is named after this
direction.
 APPLICATION
Weather Forecasting
Aviation Meteorology
Agricultural Meteorology
Hydrometeorology
Nuclear Meteorology
Maritime Meteorology
1st Step: Observation
2nd Step: Collection And
Transmission Of Weather Data
3rd Step: Plotting Of
Weather Data
4th Step: Analysis Of Weather
Maps, Satellite And Radar
Imageries And Other Data
5th Step: Formulation Of The
Forecast
Aviation
meteorology

• Aviation meteorology deals with the

impact of weather on air traffic
management. It is important for air crews
to understand the implications of weather
on their flight plan as well as their aircraft
 Agricultural meteorology

involves the integration of

climatological and
meteorological data and
techniques into
agricultural problems,
such as crop production,
soil moisture, moisture
stress, and migration of
pests. A good
background in basic math
and sciences is required.
 Hydrometeorology
is a branch
of meteorology and hydrology that studies
the transfer of water and energy between
the land surface and the
lower atmosphere.
 Nuclear meteorology

 Nuclear meteorology investigates the

distribution
of radioactive aerosols and gases in the
atmosphere
 Maritime meteorology
 deals with air and wave forecasts for ships
operating at sea.