Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place. Most weather takes place in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere.

Weather is described in a variety of ways by meteorologists, scientists who study and predict weather. Air temperature and pressure, the amount and type of precipitation, the strength and direction of wind, and the types of clouds are all described in a weather report.

Weather changes each day because the air in our atmosphere is always moving, redistributing energy from the Sun. In most places in the world, the type of weather events expected vary through the year as seasons change.  While weather can change rapidly, climate changes slowly, over decades or more, in response to changes in the factors that determine our climate. 

<a href="/earth/Atmosphere/clouds/kelvin_helmholtz.html&edu=elem&dev=">Kelvin-Helmholtz</a>
  clouds resemble breaking <a
  href="/earth/Water/ocean_waves.html&edu=elem&dev=">waves in
  the ocean</a>. They are usually the most developed near mountains or large
  hills. Wind deflected up and over a barrier, like a mountain, continues
  flowing through the air in a wavelike pattern. Complex <a
  href="/earth/Water/evaporation.html&edu=elem&dev=">evaporation</a>
  and <a href="/earth/Water/condensation.html&edu=elem&dev=">condensation</a>
  patterns create the capped tops and cloudless troughs of the waves. This
  image was taken on February 9, 2003 in the morning in Boulder, Colorado.<p><small><em>       Courtesy of Roberta Johnson</em></small></p>Hurricane Alex, a <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/saffir_simpson.html&edu=elem&dev=">category
  3</a> storm at its strongest, traveled north along the east coast of North
  America in August 2004 causing <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/surge.html&edu=elem&dev=">flooding</a>,
  strong <a href="/earth/Water/ocean_waves.html&edu=elem&dev=">waves</a>,
  and rip tides along the coast. <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/formation.html&edu=elem&dev=">Hurricanes
  form</a> in the tropics over warm ocean water and die down when they <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/movement.html&edu=elem&dev=">move</a>
  over land or out of the tropics. These storms are called hurricanes in the
  Atlantic and typhoons or tropical cyclones in other areas of the world.<p><small><em>      Courtesy of NOAA</em></small></p>A <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/tornado.html&edu=elem&dev=">tornado</a>
  begins in a severe <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm.html&edu=elem&dev=">thunderstorm</a>
  called a <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/severe.html&edu=elem&dev=">supercell</a>.</p>
  The wind coming into the storm starts to swirl and forms a funnel.
  The air in the funnel spins faster and faster and creates a very <a
  href="/earth/Atmosphere/low_pressure.html&edu=elem&dev=">low
  pressure</a> area which sucks more 
 This tornado was photographed in Carteret County, NC on June 7, 2004.<p><small><em>Courtesy of National Weather Service Forecast Office of Newport/Morehead City, NC</em></small></p>Greenland's <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/cryosphere_glacier1.html">ice sheet</a> saw a record <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/olpa/greenland_10dec07.html">melt</a> in July 2012.  Scientists studying this event have found that this melting event was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air and amplified by the presence of a blanket of thin low-level <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html">clouds</a> which pushed temperatures up above freezing.  For more information see the <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/21638">press release</a> from the University of Wisconsin Madison.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison</em></small></p>On May 20, 2013, a massive EF5 <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/tornado.html">tornado</a> hit Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities and lives.  The tornado, on the ground for 40 minutes, took a path through a subdivision of homes, destroying block after block of homes, and hitting two elementary schools just as school was ending as well as a hospital. Hundreds of people were injured, and 24 were killed.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Ks0stm, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license</em></small></p>Does Earth science matter?  The power outage experienced by residents in New York City on 10/30/2012 due to Hurricane Sandy demonstrates the interconnectedness of our society, and the power of the Earth system.  Every person should have an understanding of how the Earth system works so they can live better lives, protect those they love, and make wise choices.  Earth science education is critical!<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Hybirdd, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.</em></small></p>

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