Come Rain or Shine: Understanding the Weather

Weather affects our lives almost every day through what we wear, what we eat and what we do. But why is it rainy, windy or sometimes even sunny? Explore some of the physical processes driving UK weather systems and get hands on in the world of weather with practical activities and fieldwork. Try your hand at forecasting and have a go at interpreting weather maps and compare your results with our educator, Dr Sylvia Knight’s. You’ll also watch our educators carrying out simple but effective experiments including creating clouds, simulating hot air rising and demonstrating the Coriolis effect.

You’ll then move on to explore the global controls on weather and climate, looking at Earth’s energy budget and the factors that influence it. You’ll learn about global atmospheric and oceanic circulation and discover how and why the weather in the Tropics differs from that in the UK, before studying other weather systems such as Monsoons, Tropical cyclones and El Niño/La Niña.

You don’t need any existing knowledge of meteorology, just an interest in learning about the weather. This might appeal to you if you’re signed up to Met Matters or Weather Watchers. There should be something for everyone – whether you are coming to the course with a fair amount of previous knowledge, or none at all. If this is the first time you’ve taken a meteorology course you may find some of the content challenging, but don’t worry there will be plenty of help available.

It also might appeal to you if you’re a geography teacher. For example, the amount of time devoted to weather within the English National Curriculum and GCSE and A level specifications has hugely increased; this course will help improve your confidence to teach the topics and may also be directly relevant to your students, some of whom may consider a career in meteorology.

Course image used with permission of NEODAAS/University of Dundee.

You don’t need any existing knowledge of meteorology, just an interest in learning about the weather. This might appeal to you if you’re signed up to Met Matters or Weather Watchers. There should be something for everyone – whether you are coming to the course with a fair amount of previous knowledge, or none at all. If this is the first time you’ve taken a meteorology course you may find some of the content challenging, but don’t worry there will be plenty of help available.

It also might appeal to you if you’re a geography teacher. For example, the amount of time devoted to weather within the English National Curriculum and GCSE and A level specifications has hugely increased; this course will help improve your confidence to teach the topics and may also be directly relevant to your students, some of whom may consider a career in meteorology.

Course image used with permission of NEODAAS/University of Dundee.

• Interpret synoptic charts and use them to describe weather details such as wind speed and direction, precipitation and cloud cover.
• Explore depressions and discover why they are so significant in mid-latitude locations such as the UK.
• Investigate the physical processes behind weather, such as warm air rising, cloud formation and the Coriolis effect with experiments you can do at home.
• Record your local weather conditions and share your findings.
• Reflect on the processes that affect the Earth’s atmosphere and therefore climate, both natural (volcanoes, orbit) and man-made (greenhouse gases).
• Apply your understanding of mid-latitude weather systems to analyse weather data and images.