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Local Duststorm

 

Dust Storm, Lowe's parking lot, El Paso, Texas by T.Jagger at 09:11PM (CDT) on June 13, 2004 
 
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Weather and Climate Minimize

What is Weather?

Weather is the state of the earth’s atmosphere at a particular place at any given moment. Weather is always changing. It includes factors such as storm and cloud movement, the likelihood of precipitation and changes in humidity.


What is Climate?

Climate describes the average over time of the weather, usually a time period of about thirty years is considered. Atlases show climate maps, showing average temperatures and rainfall over the seasons of the year. Climate is the combination of all the elements of weather at a particular place. Some climates have marked changes of weather type during the year.


                Climates vary from place to place and the countries around the world do not fit into neat categories of climate and weather. Many things influence a place's climate such as distance from the equator and the local topography (natural features). Mountain ranges can increase or decrease rainfall. Coastal areas often have a different climate to those inland. 


                                                                            Click on image to follow link to FAO.org 

 
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Meteorology Minimize

 

            Meteorology is the science and study of the earth's atmosphere and its interaction with the earth and all forms of life.  It embraces a wide range of time and space scales, from the tiniest turbulent eddies, which survive as recognizable entities for only a second or two, to the variations in ice cover and the global climatic fluctuations, which extend over millennia.  It seeks to understand and to predict for the benefit of mankind the behavior of weather, the climate and the atmosphere in general, from the surfaces of land and sea to the edge of space. 

             The profession of meteorology includes the development of complex mathematical representations of the way the atmosphere work and can be predicted. The manipulation of vast data resources, the design, development and testing of new instruments, and the use of modern communications and data management systems. There are also close links with sister sciences such as hydrology and physical oceanography.  Within this wide spectrum, there are opportunities for pure research, applied research, operational work, scientific and commercial management, entrepreneurial ventures, teaching and consultancy.