30-Second Weather

Professor Adam Scaife is head of Monthly to Decadal Prediction at the UK Met Office and honorary visiting Professor at Exeter University. He investigates mechanisms and predictability of weather and climate and has over 20 years experience in modelling the atmosphere with computer models. He has published around 100 scientific papers in leading journals and his recent studies include exciting new evidence for long range predictability of winter weather. His work has helped understand how the freezing European winters of the 1960s gave way to the mild, wet winters of the 1990s and how other effects like El Niño and solar variability affect our climate. Professor Scaife was recently awarded the Lloyd’s of London Science of Risk Research Prize for Climate Change research and the L.G. Groves prize for Meteorology. He regularly communicates the latest meteorological science to the public via television, newspapers and other media.

8  Introduction 

12  The Elements
14 GLOSSARY
16 Air 
18 Layers of the atmosphere 
20 Seasons 
22 Clouds 
24 Rain 
26 Frost 
28 Snow 
30 Hail 
32 Fog 
34  Profile: Lewis Fry Richardson
36 Pressure, isobars, cyclones and anticyclones 
38 Coriolis Force 
40 Wind: atmospheric balance 
42 Local winds 

44  The Global Atmosphere 
46 GLOSSARY
48 Air masses and weather fronts 
50 Jet streams 
52 Storm tracks 
54 Atmospheric waves 
56 Profile: Carl-Gustaf Rossby 
58 Blocking, heatwaves and cold snaps 
60 Hadley circulation and deserts 
62 Trade winds 
64 Rainy seasons 
66 Monsoons
68 Polar vortex 

70 The Sun
72 GLOSSARY
74 Blue sky 
76 Sunshine 
78 Rainbows 
80 Mirages, sundogs and haloes 
82 Sunspots and climate 
84 Profile: Gilbert Walker 
86 Space weather

88 Weather Watching & Forecasting
90 GLOSSARY
92 Weather records 
94 Profile: Jule Charney 
96 Weather satellites and radar 
98 Weather forecasting 
100 Chaos 
102 Climate prediction 

104 Can We Change the Weather?
106 GLOSSARY
108 The ozone hole 
110 Global warming and the greenhouse effect 
112 Profile: Svante Arrhenius 
114 Acid rain and atmospheric pollution 
116 Contrails

118 Weather Cycles
120 GLOSSARY
122 Madden Julian oscillation 
124 El Niño and La Niña 
126 North Atlantic oscillation 
128 Quasi-biennial oscillation 
130 Pacific decadal oscillation 
132 Atlantic multidecadal oscillation 
134 Past climates and the Little Ice Age 
136 Milankovitch cycles 
138 Profile: Milutin Milankovic

140 Extreme Weather
142 GLOSSARY
144 Thunderstorms and lightning 
146 Hurricanes and typhoons 
148 Tornadoes 
150 Sudden stratospheric warming 
152 Profile: Edward Lorenz

154  Notes on Contributors  
156  Resources  
158  Index 
160  Acknowledgments