University of Aberdeen Meteorology

Meteorology

This page is here to help students taking or revising our course Meteorology & Astronomy. The meteorology component is subtitled 'Meteorology: an introduction to weather, climate and the environment' and is a course intended for anyone with an interest in the subject who has a basic knowledge of physical science and standard grade mathematics. The slides and notes here are based on an earlier version of the course compared with the slightly shortened version now given..

You can read here the earlier version of the introductory course handout (a doc file). This includes a detailed list of course content (pdf file) topics that you will find helpful for revision. Remember that the overheads are not a complete synopsis of the lecture contents, simply a summary. Read the textbook discussed in the introductory handout as well. The overhead summaries are .pdf files containing 6 slides to a page. They can be viewed using the Acrobat reader or equivalent software (on class-room PCs) and printed on a postscript printer (in colour, if required, but see further comments on printing slides). The satellite images exercise and the computer lab referenced at the end of the blue panel are no longer part of the course but you are welcome to look at them.

Our essential guidance is a 'must read' for all who want to score well in their courses.

Supplementary pieces

by John S. Reid

button Printing chapter slides (.htm)

button Use of a calculator (.pdf)

button Meteorology at the University of Aberdeen over the Centuries (.pdf)

Climate - a word from my predecessor (.pdf)

Mitigation of climate change (.pdf)

On renewables (.pdf)

New light on global warming (.pdf)

button Ideal gas meteorology (.pdf)

button Taking meteorology into your job (.pdf)

The numbers game (.pdf)

button On randomness (.pdf)

button Weather lore (.pdf)

button Personal weather station (.pdf)

button The Ben Nevis Observatory (.pdf)

button John Tyndall: glaciers, mountains and climate (.pdf)

Breath of Life (.pdf)

button Physics of Cycling (.pdf)

button A Tale of Invention (.pdf)

On cars of the future (.pdf)

button Physics of Drones (.pdf)

button Saving on heating (.pdf)

button How much sunshine? (.pdf)
button In a cyclone (.pdf)

button Ascent in a balloon (.pdf)
button Extreme Cold (.pdf)

button The grammar of science (.pdf)

button Musings for the maths averse (.pdf)

Brainoil (.pdf)

button The Green flash (.pdf)

button Meteorological links

button UK weather

button Astronomy course

button Interesting sites

button The Geddes Prize

Course handout (.doc)

button Course summary (.pdf)

button Weather log exercise (.doc)

button Satellite images exercise (.html)

button Computing lab

button Disclaimer

***** THE LECTURES ARE TRANSLATED INTO pdf FILES for both the slides (1 to-a page) and the summaries (6 to-a-page).

***** In addition to the overhead summaries, course notes are included for most sections of the course (in pdf format). Views expressed in these notes are personal views.

The Atmosphere plus overhead summary and lecture notes
The Ozone Story plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Temperature and Energy plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Climate Change plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Seasonal and Daily Temperatures plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Atmospheric Water plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Condensation plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Atmospheric Stability and Cloud Development plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Precipitation plus overhead summary and lecture notes
The Atmosphere in Motion plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Global Circulation plus overhead summary and lecture notes
Air Masses & Fronts plus overhead summary (no notes available)
Cyclogenesis & Forecasting plus overhead summary and final note

UK Weather & Climate

The BBC weather pages contain the Aberdeen 5-day forecast, an interesting overlay of forecast weather on the NE Scotland map, local conditions, the current pressure chart, a video of the day's TV forecast and access to weather on a European and world stage. The Met office offer a new look 7-day Aberdeen forecast. Met Office pressure charts over the next 72 hours can be seen on another Met Office page, with an animation arrow beneath the chart. Their rain radar is useful, the image can be zoomed in or out to localise the underlying map. The Met Office also has summary pages on the science behind the creation of forecasts on different timescales.

Metcheck offers a user friendly layout that can be customised to your postcode (and they have many links besides) but in my experience their forecasts seem to err on the pessimistic side.

Wunderground has a map that shows the Aberdeen locality with local weather stations marked. Click on an icon and further weather information from that station shows, including current weather and the 10-day forecast in symbols and words.

A more comprehensive statement of current local conditions is available as the Dyce hourly weather report for the last 24 hours, with a version in Met Office forecast format supplied by the Met Office. The Met Office provide recent conditions reported over the country from selected locations shown on a map. Some clomate data for Aberdeen is available at Worldclimate.com. World Weather Online has a forecast for Aberdeen and further down the page there are historical data for the day and climate graphs. The Department of Physics used to show some monthly sunshine figures recorded at the Fraser Noble Building but the list is not up-to-date since our service to the national radiation network has been taken over by the Dyce weather centre.

On a wider scale, the commercial MeteoGroup's weathercast page shows an animated UK map and gives access to their Aberdeen forecast, weather news stories and 'world weather''.

The Very Useful UK Weather Page gives quick access to synoptic charts, satellite pictures and regional forecasts. If that fails, Metbrief show all the Met Offices charts on one page.

A summary of Aberdeen's climate is given here in graphs and tables. A range of variables is simply tablulated in Aberdeen monthly averages for temperatures, rainfall, windspeed and humidity in Imperial and metric units. Historical statistics giving Aberdeen's average temperature, rainfall and pressure can be found under historical climate data. From here you can navigate to other places in the NE, and beyond.

Worthy of this front page is a link to 'Net zero' the UK's Committee on Climate Change report to the government delivered in May 2019. It's aspirational rather than executive policy but at least it shows a possible route based on credible science and economics. One suggestion is that Scotland could achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The report contains useful material for anyone investigating the topic. On the topic of 'climate change' see the Royal Meteorological Society's Climate Science Communications Group Committee's short briefing papers of a couple of pages each on current topics.

The climate of the East of Scotland is detailed by the Met Office in a number of tables, graphs and descriptive paragraphs. Other areas can be accessed by going back one page. The Met Office have a general data page on climate with a range of statistics that can be downloaded.

Today's forecasts are based on the output of numerical models. You can explore the kind of data available to professional forecasters from a realistic model generated by ManUniCast. A wide range of variables can be plotted (see the 'Production Descriptions' tab) including a range of atmospheric chemistry predictions. The 'Forecasts' page uses a straightforward interface either to overlay results on an outline of the UK or Europe, or present meteograms and some other options. Anyone interested in forecasting beyond the scope of our course should explore this resource, ideally with guidance from a textbook on operational weather forecasting.

Much more UK and foreign weather can be found in our Meteorology links, including satellite pictures.

European & World Weather

Try here for a European 10-day temperature forecast or a European 10-day rainfall forecast. Forecast charts from 3 to 6 days ahead, and a lot more, are available from European Centre for Medium Range Forecasts.

A stunning view of the world today is obtained in a composite picture from the University of Wisconsin that illustrates the world's cloud as seen by geostationary satellites, and both land and sea temperatures

More Links There is plenty of meteorology on the World Wide Web. A list of additional LINKS is given here that will give you further access to today's forecasts, weather charts, meteorological organisations, educational resources and sites with many more references. We also have yet another page of sites of related interest.

Page constructed by John S. Reid j.s.reid@abdn.ac.uk
Last updated Jun 2020