Weather

Basics

Unit 1
The basics about weather, pressure systems and fronts

Changes in our climate are difficult to observe as it is a long term process, which lasts over the span of a lifetime or even generations. An unusually rainy, cool spring or a heat wave in summer does not mean that the climate is changing. What we observe everyday are weather phenomena.
 

The weather is observed world-wide in a dense network of meteorological stations. If average weather data change over decades we call this a climate change. In this unit we have a look at weather parameters. An important one is the pressure, as the sequence of high and low pressure systems has a strong influence on our weather. We explain how these pressure systems form, how fronts are generated and the type of weather they ususally cause.

About this page:

Author: Elmar Uherek
English language review: Sally Taylor, University of Leeds
last update: 2005-07-07