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Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy.<ref>"Weather." Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 27 June 2008.</ref> On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the troposphere,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> just below the stratosphere. Weather refers to day-to-day temperature, precipitation, and other atmospheric conditions, whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> When used without qualification, "weather" is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth.
Weather is driven by air pressure, temperature, and moisture differences between one place and another. These differences can occur due to the Sun's angle at any particular spot, which varies with latitude. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations: the Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell, the polar cell, and the jet stream. Weather systems in the middle latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet streamflow. Because Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane (called the ecliptic), sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth's surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (−40 °F to 104 °F) annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by Earth, thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change.
Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes, as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Earth's weather system is a chaotic system; as a result, small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history, and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns.
Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, the weather is not limited to planetary bodies. A star's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind.
CausesEdit
On Earth, common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Some more common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and ice storms. Almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere).<ref name=":0" /> Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down in the troposphere, but the exact mechanisms are poorly understood.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Weather occurs primarily due to air pressure, temperature and moisture differences from one place to another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude in the tropics. In other words, the farther from the tropics one lies, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due to the spread of the sunlight over a greater surface.<ref>NASA. World Book at NASA: Weather. Archived copy at WebCite (10 March 2013). Retrieved on 27 June 2008.</ref> The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the large scale atmospheric circulation cells and the jet stream.<ref name="Stimac">John P. Stimac. [1] Template:Webarchive Air pressure and wind. Retrieved on 8 May 2008.</ref> Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow (see baroclinity).<ref>Carlyle H. Wash, Stacey H. Heikkinen, Chi-Sann Liou, and Wendell A. Nuss. A Rapid Cyclogenesis Event during GALE IOP 9. Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> Weather systems in the tropics, such as monsoons or organized thunderstorm systems, are caused by different processes.
Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. In June the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so at any given Northern Hemisphere latitude sunlight falls more directly on that spot than in December (see Effect of sun angle on climate).<ref>Windows to the Universe. Earth's Tilt Is the Reason for the Seasons! Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> This effect causes seasons. Over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbital parameters affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate. (See Milankovitch cycles).<ref>Milankovitch, Milutin. Canon of Insolation and the Ice Age Problem. Zavod za Udz̆benike i Nastavna Sredstva: Belgrade, 1941. Template:ISBN.</ref>
The uneven solar heating (the formation of zones of temperature and moisture gradients, or frontogenesis) can also be due to the weather itself in the form of cloudiness and precipitation.<ref>Ron W. Przybylinski. The Concept of Frontogenesis and its Application to Winter Weather Forecasting. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> Higher altitudes are typically cooler than lower altitudes, which is the result of higher surface temperature and radiational heating, which produces the adiabatic lapse rate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In some situations, the temperature actually increases with height. This phenomenon is known as an inversion and can cause mountaintops to be warmer than the valleys below. Inversions can lead to the formation of fog and often act as a cap that suppresses thunderstorm development. On local scales, temperature differences can occur because different surfaces (such as oceans, forests, ice sheets, or human-made objects) have differing physical characteristics such as reflectivity, roughness, or moisture content.
Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. A hot surface warms the air above it causing it to expand and lower the density and the resulting surface air pressure.<ref>Michel Moncuquet. Relation between density and temperature. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> The resulting horizontal pressure gradient moves the air from higher to lower pressure regions, creating a wind, and the Earth's rotation then causes deflection of this airflow due to the Coriolis effect.<ref>Encyclopedia of Earth. Wind. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> The simple systems thus formed can then display emergent behaviour to produce more complex systems and thus other weather phenomena. Large scale examples include the Hadley cell while a smaller scale example would be coastal breezes.
The atmosphere is a chaotic system. As a result, small changes to one part of the system can accumulate and magnify to cause large effects on the system as a whole.<ref>Spencer Weart. The Discovery of Global Warming. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> This atmospheric instability makes weather forecasting less predictable than tidal waves or eclipses.<ref name="Lorenz, 1969">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although it is difficult to accurately predict weather more than a few days in advance, weather forecasters are continually working to extend this limit through meteorological research and refining current methodologies in weather prediction. However, it is theoretically impossible to make useful day-to-day predictions more than about two weeks ahead, imposing an upper limit to potential for improved prediction skill.<ref name="Chaos in the Atmosphere">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Shaping the planet EarthEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Weather is one of the fundamental processes that shape the Earth. The process of weathering breaks down the rocks and soils into smaller fragments and then into their constituent substances.<ref>NASA. NASA Mission Finds New Clues to Guide Search for Life on Mars. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> During rains precipitation, the water droplets absorb and dissolve carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic, which aids the erosive properties of water. The released sediment and chemicals are then free to take part in chemical reactions that can affect the surface further (such as acid rain), and sodium and chloride ions (salt) deposited in the seas/oceans. The sediment may reform in time and by geological forces into other rocks and soils. In this way, weather plays a major role in erosion of the surface.<ref>West Gulf River Forecast Center. Glossary of Hydrologic Terms: E Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref>
Effect on humansEdit
Template:Further Weather, seen from an anthropological perspective, is something all humans in the world constantly experience through their senses, at least while being outside. There are socially and scientifically constructed understandings of what weather is, what makes it change, the effect the weather, and especially inclement weather, has on humans in different situations, etc.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Therefore, weather is something people often communicate about.
In the United States, the National Weather Service has an annual report for fatalities, injury, and total damage costs which include crop and property. They gather this data via National Weather Service offices located throughout the 50 states in the United States as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. As of 2019, tornadoes have had the greatest impact on humans with 42 fatalities while costing crop and property damage over 3 billion dollars.<ref>United States. National Weather Service. Office of Climate, Water, Weather Services, & National Climatic Data Center. (2000). Weather Related Fatality and Injury Statistics.</ref>
Effects on populationsEdit
The weather has played a large and sometimes direct part in human history. Aside from climatic changes that have caused the gradual drift of populations (for example the desertification of the Middle East, and the formation of land bridges during glacial periods), extreme weather events have caused smaller scale population movements and intruded directly in historical events. One such event is the saving of Japan from invasion by the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan by the Kamikaze winds in 1281.<ref>James P. Delgado. Relics of the Kamikaze. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> French claims to Florida came to an end in 1565 when a hurricane destroyed the French fleet, allowing Spain to conquer Fort Caroline.<ref>Mike Strong. Fort Caroline National Memorial. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> More recently, Hurricane Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest diaspora in the history of the United States.<ref>Anthony E. Ladd, John Marszalek, and Duane A. Gill. The Other Diaspora: New Orleans Student Evacuation Impacts and Responses Surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 29 March 2008.</ref>
The Little Ice Age caused crop failures and famines in Europe. During the period known as the Grindelwald Fluctuation (1560–1630), volcanic forcing events<ref>Jason Wolfe, Volcanoes and Climate Change Template:Webarchive, NASA, 28 July 2020). Date retrieved: 28 May 2021.</ref> seem to have led to more extreme weather events.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> These included droughts, storms and unseasonal blizzards, as well as causing the Swiss Grindelwald Glacier to expand. The 1690s saw the worst famine in France since the Middle Ages. Finland suffered a severe famine in 1696–1697, during which about one-third of the Finnish population died.<ref>"Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s". Karen J. Cullen (2010). Edinburgh University Press. p. 21. Template:ISBN</ref>
ForecastingEdit
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Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since at least the nineteenth century.<ref>Eric D. Craft. An Economic History of Weather Forecasting. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 15 April 2007.</ref> Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve.<ref>NASA. Weather Forecasting Through the Ages. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref>
Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition,<ref>Weather Doctor. Applying The Barometer To Weather Watching. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref><ref>Mark Moore. Field Forecasting: A Short Summary. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref> forecast models are now used to determine future conditions. On the other hand, human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves many disciplines such as pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases.
The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, the error involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as of the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus helps to narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome.<ref name="Klaus">Klaus Weickmann, Jeff Whitaker, Andres Roubicek and Catherine Smith. The Use of Ensemble Forecasts to Produce Improved Medium Range (3–15 days) Weather Forecasts. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 16 February 2007.</ref><ref name="TBK">Todd Kimberlain. Tropical cyclone motion and intensity talk (June 2007). Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 21 July 2007.</ref><ref>Richard J. Pasch, Mike Fiorino, and Chris Landsea. TPC/NHC’S Review of the NCEP Production Suite For 2006.Template:Dead link Retrieved on 5 May 2008.</ref>
There are a variety of end users to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property.<ref>National Weather Service. National Weather Service Mission Statement. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture,<ref>Blair Fannin. Dry weather conditions continue for Texas. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 26 May 2008.</ref><ref>Dr. Terry Mader. Drought Corn Silage. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 26 May 2008.</ref><ref>Kathryn C. Taylor. Peach Orchard Establishment and Young Tree Care. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 26 May 2008.</ref><ref>Associated Press. After Freeze, Counting Losses to Orange Crop. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 26 May 2008.</ref> and therefore to commodity traders within stock markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days.<ref>The New York Times. Futures/Options; Cold Weather Brings Surge In Prices of Heating Fuels. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref><ref>BBC. Heatwave causes electricity surge. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref><ref>Toronto Catholic Schools. The Seven Key Messages of the Energy Drill Program. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 25 May 2008.</ref>
In some areas, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events and to plan ahead to survive through them.
Tropical weather forecasting is different from that at higher latitudes. The sun shines more directly on the tropics than on higher latitudes (at least on average over a year), which makes the tropics warm (Stevens 2011). And, the vertical direction (up, as one stands on the Earth's surface) is perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation at the equator, while the axis of rotation and the vertical are the same at the pole; this causes the Earth's rotation to influence the atmospheric circulation more strongly at high latitudes than low latitudes. Because of these two factors, clouds and rainstorms in the tropics can occur more spontaneously compared to those at higher latitudes, where they are more tightly controlled by larger-scale forces in the atmosphere. Because of these differences, clouds and rain are more difficult to forecast in the tropics than at higher latitudes. On the other hand, the temperature is easily forecast in the tropics, because it does not change much.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ModificationEdit
The aspiration to control the weather is evident throughout human history: from ancient rituals intended to bring rain for crops to the U.S. Military Operation Popeye, an attempt to disrupt supply lines by lengthening the North Vietnamese monsoon. The most successful attempts at influencing weather involve cloud seeding; they include the fog- and low stratus dispersion techniques employed by major airports, techniques used to increase winter precipitation over mountains, and techniques to suppress hail.<ref name="AMS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A recent example of weather control was China's preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China shot 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city of Beijing in an effort to keep rain away from the opening ceremony of the games on 8 August 2008. Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau (BMB), confirmed the success of the operation with 100 millimeters falling in Baoding City of Hebei Province, to the southwest and Beijing's Fangshan District recording a rainfall of 25 millimeters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Whereas there is inconclusive evidence for these techniques' efficacy, there is extensive evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry results in inadvertent weather modification:<ref name="AMS" />
- Acid rain, caused by industrial emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, adversely affects freshwater lakes, vegetation, and structures.
- Anthropogenic pollutants reduce air quality and visibility.
- Climate change caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases into the air is expected to affect the frequency of extreme weather events such as drought, extreme temperatures, flooding, high winds, and severe storms.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Heat, generated by large metropolitan areas have been shown to minutely affect nearby weather, even at distances as far as Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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The effects of inadvertent weather modification may pose serious threats to many aspects of civilization, including ecosystems, natural resources, food and fiber production, economic development, and human health.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Microscale meteorologyEdit
Microscale meteorology is the study of short-lived atmospheric phenomena smaller than mesoscale, about 1 km or less. These two branches of meteorology are sometimes grouped together as "mesoscale and microscale meteorology" (MMM) and together study all phenomena smaller than synoptic scale; that is they study features generally too small to be depicted on a weather map. These include small and generally fleeting cloud "puffs" and other small cloud features.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Extremes on EarthEdit
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On Earth, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. The range of climates and latitudes across the planet can offer extremes of temperature outside this range. The coldest air temperature ever recorded on Earth is Template:Convert, at Vostok Station, Antarctica on 21 July 1983. The hottest air temperature ever recorded was Template:Convert at ʽAziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922,<ref name="NCDC">Global Measured Extremes of Temperature and Precipitation. Template:Webarchive National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved on 21 June 2007.</ref> but that reading was deemed illegitimate by the World Meteorological Organization. The highest recorded average annual temperature was Template:Convert at Dallol, Ethiopia.<ref>Glenn Elert. Hottest Temperature on Earth. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> The coldest recorded average annual temperature was Template:Convert at Vostok Station, Antarctica.<ref>Glenn Elert. Coldest Temperature On Earth. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref>
The coldest average annual temperature in a permanently inhabited location is at Eureka, Nunavut, in Canada, where the annual average temperature is Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The windiest place ever recorded is in Antarctica, Commonwealth Bay (George V Coast). Here the gales reach Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Furthermore, the greatest snowfall in a period of twelve months occurred in Mount Rainier, Washington, US. It was recorded as Template:Convert of snow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Extraterrestrial weatherEdit
Studying how the weather works on other planets has been seen as helpful in understanding how it works on Earth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Weather on other planets follows many of the same physical principles as weather on Earth, but occurs on different scales and in atmospheres having different chemical composition. The Cassini–Huygens mission to Titan discovered clouds formed from methane or ethane which deposit rain composed of liquid methane and other organic compounds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Earth's atmosphere includes six latitudinal circulation zones, three in each hemisphere.<ref>Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Overview – Climate: The Spherical Shape of the Earth: Climatic Zones. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> In contrast, Jupiter's banded appearance shows many such zones,<ref>Anne Minard. Jupiter's "Jet Stream" Heated by Surface, Not Sun. Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> Titan has a single jet stream near the 50th parallel north latitude,<ref>ESA: Cassini–Huygens. The jet stream of Titan. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> and Venus has a single jet near the equator.<ref>Georgia State University. The Environment of Venus. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref>
One of the most famous landmarks in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years.<ref name="HaydPlan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On other giant planets, the lack of a surface allows the wind to reach enormous speeds: gusts of up to 600 metres per second (about Template:Convert) have been measured on the planet Neptune.<ref name="Suomi1991">Template:Cite journal</ref> This has created a puzzle for planetary scientists. The weather is ultimately created by solar energy and the amount of energy received by Neptune is only about Template:Frac of that received by Earth, yet the intensity of weather phenomena on Neptune is far greater than on Earth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:As of, the strongest planetary winds discovered are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than Template:Convert.<ref name="Knutson">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Space weatherEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Weather is not limited to planetary bodies. Like all stars, the Sun's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind. Inconsistencies in this wind and larger events on the surface of the star, such as coronal mass ejections, form a system that has features analogous to conventional weather systems (such as pressure and wind) and is generally known as space weather. Coronal mass ejections have been tracked as far out in the Solar System as Saturn.<ref>Bill Christensen. Shock to the (Solar) System: Coronal Mass Ejection Tracked to Saturn. Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> The activity of this system can affect planetary atmospheres and occasionally surfaces. The interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial atmosphere can produce spectacular aurorae,<ref>AlaskaReport. What Causes the Aurora Borealis? Template:Webarchive Retrieved on 28 June 2008.</ref> and can play havoc with electrically sensitive systems such as electricity grids and radio signals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Glossary of meteorology
- Indigenous Australian seasons
- Outline of meteorology
- Weather station
- [[Weather of Template:CURRENT YEAR]]
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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