Portal:Weather

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The weather portal

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers to day-to-day temperature, precipitation, and other atmospheric conditions, whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time. When used without qualification, "weather" is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth.

Weather is driven by air pressure, temperature, and moisture differences between one place and another. These differences can occur due to the Sun's angle at any particular spot, which varies with latitude. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations: the Hadley cell, the Ferrel cell, the polar cell, and the jet stream. Weather systems in the middle latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet streamflow. Because Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane (called the ecliptic), sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth's surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (−40 °F to 104 °F) annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by Earth, thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes, as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Earth's weather system is a chaotic system; as a result, small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history, and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, the weather is not limited to planetary bodies. A star's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

Hurricane Vince was an unusual hurricane which developed in the northeastern Atlantic basin. Forming in October during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the waters over which it developed were considered too cold for tropical development. Vince was the 20th named tropical cyclone and 12th hurricane of the extremely active season. Vince developed from a non-tropical system on October 8, becoming a subtropical storm southeast of the Azores. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) did not officially name the storm until the next day, shortly before Vince became a hurricane. The storm weakened at sea and, on October 11, made landfall on the Iberian Peninsula as a tropical depression. Vince was the first tropical system to do so since the 1842 Spain hurricane. It dissipated over Spain, bringing much needed rain to the region, and its remnants passed into the Mediterranean Sea...

Recently selected articles: Weather, Cyclogenesis, More...

More selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated) - show different entries

... that Eric Berger wrote about weather for the Houston Chronicle even before he became a certified meteorologist?
... that weather whiplash is the phenomenon of rapid swings between extremes of weather conditions?
... that extreme event attribution estimates how much climate change causes weather events, such as the 2021 Western North America heat wave?
... that after Irish post office clerk Maureen Flavin Sweeney reported worsening weather conditions, Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed to postpone D-Day by 24 hours?
... that an attempted British-Norwegian attack on the German battleship Tirpitz was abandoned after two Chariot manned torpedoes were lost due to bad weather?
... that Japanese actor Kouhei Higuchi prepared for his role on the television drama adaptation of My Personal Weatherman by learning from a weather forecaster?

edit

Selected image

An atmospheric gravity wave manifests itself as altocumulus undulatus clouds in an arid environment, in the Tadrart Acacus region of southeast Algeria.

Recently selected pictures: Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower, Cyclone Catarina, Roll cloud, More...

More selected pictures

edit

More did you know...

...that the Flying river is the name given to the transport of water vapor from the Amazon rainforest to southern Brazil?

...that hurricane shutters are required for all homes in Florida unless impact-resistant glass is used?

...that the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research is a combined weather and ocean research institute with the cooperation of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the University of Hawaiʻi?

...that the SS Central America was sunk by a hurricane while carrying more than 30,000 pounds (13,600 kg) of gold, contributing to the Panic of 1857?

...that a hurricane force wind warning is issued by the United States National Weather Service for storms that are not tropical cyclones but are expected to produce hurricane-force winds (65 knots (75 mph; 120 km/h) or higher)?

...that the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecasting System is a software package for tropical cyclone forecasting developed in 1988 that is still used today by meteorologists in various branches of the US Government?

Archive of previous DYK...

edit

Recent and ongoing weather

edit

This week in weather history...

May 10

2002: A tropical cyclone struck the coast of Oman, causing severe damage and several deaths due to drowning in flash floods.

May 11

1970: Seventeen years to the day after the deadliest tornado in Texas history, another tornado struck downtown Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 people. It was the only F5 tornado in history to strike a skyscraper, which had its steel infrastructure twisted by the storm.

May 12

1970: Severe floods began in Romania, eventually killing more than 200 and leaving more than 250,000 homeless.

May 13

1998: The NOAA-15 weather satellite was launched into a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Originally planned for just a 5 year mission, as of early 2020 the satellite was still returning useful atmospheric and space data from several instruments.

May 14

2007: Cyclone Akash made landfall in Bangladesh, causing almost $1 billion in damage.

May 15: Start of the East Pacific hurricane season and end of the Mauritius and Seychelles cyclone season

2011: A major wildfire near Slave Lake, Alberta was pushed past fire breaks by winds gusting up to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph), eventually destroying more than 400 buildings in the town.

May 16

1986: Severe flooding from an ice jam completely destroyed the town of Winisk, Ontario, which was subsequently abandoned. Two people were killed.

See a new, random set • Other days in history...

edit

Selected biography

Christophorus Henricus Diedericus Buys Ballot (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbœys baːˈlɔt]; October 10, 1817 – February 3, 1890) was a Dutch chemist and meteorologist after whom Buys Ballot's law and the Buys Ballot table are named. He was first chairman of the International Meteorological Organization, the organization that would become the World Meteorological Organization. (Full article...)

Previously selected biographies: Sir William Napier Shaw, Johannes Peter Letzmann, More...

More selected biographies

Related portals

edit

Quality content

Featured articles

Featured lists

More weather-related Featured Lists...

Featured pictures

Featured topics

Featured candidates update

Feat. article candidates:

Tropical Storm Ileana (2018) (Discussion)

Featured list candidates:

Feat. picture candidates:

Other candidates:

Featured Article Review: 2005 Atlantic hurricane season (Discussion)
Featured List Removal Candidate: List of storms in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season (Discussion)

Good articles

More weather-related Good Articles...

edit

Subcategories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

edit

WikiProjects

The scope of WikiProject Weather is to have a single location for all weather-related articles on Wikipedia.

WikiProject Meteorology is a collaborative effort by dozens of Wikipedians to improve the quality of meteorology- and weather-related articles. If you would like to help, visit the project talk page, and see what needs doing.

WikiProject Severe weather is a similar project specific to articles about severe weather. Their talk page is located here.

WikiProject Tropical cyclones is a daughter project of WikiProject meteorology. The dozens of semi-active members and several full-time members focus on improving Wikipedia's coverage of tropical cyclones.

WikiProject Non-tropical storms is a collaborative project to improve articles related to winter storms, wind storms, and extratropical cyclones.

Wikipedia is a fully collaborative effort by volunteers. So if you see something you think you can improve, be bold and get to editing! We appreciate any help you can provide!