One Hundred And One Things

What's this about?

Meteorology, says Wikipedia, is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and short term forecasting (in contrast with climatology). Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries. Breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved in the latter half of the twentieth century, after the development of the computer.

Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events which illuminate and are explained by the science of meteorology. Those events are bound by the variables that exist in Earth's atmosphere: They are temperature, air pressure, water vapor, and the gradients and interactions of each variable, and how they change in time.

I'd just like to be able to understand a weather map.


Why do I want to do this?

It seems like fairly basic knowledge that I don't understand at all. So.


How will I know when I've done it?

Good question. This is probably my vaguest goal. I will call it done when I can look at a pressure map and explain what the wiggly lines [are likely to] mean for the weather.


I'll record this in occasional posts in this journal.