This lesson offers a comprehensive overview of temperature measurement as related to the atmosphere, bodies of water, soils, and other parts of Earth’s surface. The lesson begins by defining temperature and why it is an important property to characterize. It provides ... Read more »
Moisture and precipitation distribution governs life in the tropics. Surplus heating and rising motion in the tropics ignites the global water and energy cycles and influences weather in the midlatitudes. This chapter presents the horizontal and vertical distribution of ... Read more »
Lake and ocean effect processes can have a significant impact on snowfall amounts in many parts of North America, and can be very tricky to forecast. This short module is a collection of narrated reference material on many aspects of lake effect snow forecasting. It is ... Read more »
This case exercise looks at a barrier jet event over central and eastern Colorado that took on historic significance in terms of snow amounts and variability in snow distribution. The module emphasizes the mechanisms for producing both very large accumulations and extreme ... Read more »
Snowmelt is an integral component of the hydrologic forecasting process in many parts of the world. Here, we examine the influences of environmental conditions on snowfall distribution, snowpack structure, snowpack-environment energy exchange, and finally, the rate and ... Read more »
This lesson explores the primary influences, or drivers, on water temperature of inland streams and rivers. We use a simulated flight, or flyover, where we look down at the features of the South Boise River in Idaho. An unregulated as well as a regulated reach of the river ... Read more »
Conveyor belts highlight important atmospheric processes that can be advantageous for making forecasts. They can be used for identifying general temperature patterns, defining the extent of cloud cover, predicting moisture return, evaluating stability, forecasting wind ... Read more »
This lesson provides information about current science and technologies for measuring pressure in the atmosphere. The lesson begins by reviewing the key physical laws governing atmospheric pressure, including Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures. Then, it explores typical ... Read more »
This lesson explores the dynamic links between temperature, pressure, and wind in the atmosphere. The qualitative description of the relationships is augmented with "Math Sidebars" that provide a quantitative treatment. Numerous applications to climatology and forecasting ... Read more »
“Frontogenetical Circulations and Stability” is a Webcast by Dr. James T. Moore that focuses on an overview of different stability types, including convective, potential, inertial, conditional and symmetric, the concept of frontogenesis and associated circulations. The ... Read more »
This lesson is focused on how a model forecast and the interpretation of that forecast, is affected by the basic design of the model. Topics include how meteorological variables are represented in grid point and spectral models, fundamental differences between hydrostatic ... Read more »
This module first introduces forecasters to aviation-forecast customers and their needs, and discusses how fog impacts aviation operations. The main content of the module then explains the physical processes and life cycle of radiation and advection fog, including their ... Read more »
Impact of Model Structure & Dynamics, part of the "NWP Training Series: Effective Use of NWP in the Forecast Process", explains how a model forecast, and thus interpretation of that forecast, is affected by the basic design of the model. Topics include how meteorological ... Read more »
Precipitation frequently falls and accumulates in discrete bands with accumulations that vary markedly over short distances. This module examines several mechanisms that result in mesoscale banded precipitation, focusing primarily on processes at work in midlatitude ... Read more »
In this Webcast, Dr. James Steenburgh, working for the Department of Meteorology and the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction at the University of Utah, takes a look at cool-season orographic storms in western North America. He provides a brief microphysics ... Read more »
This module presents an overview of various aspects of precipitation type forecasting. It includes sections on microphysics and the ice crystal process, application of partial thickness analysis, application of the top-down method, and an overview of model algorithms ... Read more »
This Webcast is based on a COMET classroom presentation by Dr. Gary Lackmann at the 2nd MSC Winter Weather Course held in Boulder, Colorado on 22 February 2002. Dr. Lackmann reviews the basic thermodynamics of freezing and melting and how operational models represent these ... Read more »
This content is not hosted on MetEd.
JetStream - An Online School for Weather is a free teaching resource covering a wide variety of weather topics and weather safety. It provides educators, emergency managers, or anyone interested in learning about weather with comprehensive, well-organized, colorfully ... Read more »
This module provides a brief overview of Buoyancy and CAPE. Topics covered include the origin of atmospheric buoyancy, estimating buoyancy using the CAPE and Lifted Index, factors that affect buoyancy including entrainment of mid-level air, water loading, convective ... Read more »
This module presents current conceptual models of several MCS types and provides explanations for the structures and behavior of MCSs based on the physical processes underlying their evolution. An understanding of the physical processes and conceptual models of MCSs will ... Read more »
Meteorologists typically examine atmospheric soundings in the course of preparing a weather forecast. The skew-T / log-P diagram provides the preferred method for analyzing these soundings. This module comprehensively examines the use of the skew-T diagram. It explores ... Read more »