Come Rain or Shine: Understanding the Weather (FutureLearn)

Try your hand at forecasting and have a go at interpreting weather maps and compare your results to our educator Dr Sylvia Knight’s. You’ll also watch our educators carrying out simple but effective experiments including creating clouds or simulating hot air rising and demonstrating the Coriolis effect.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1:

Introduction to high and low pressure systems

Weather and climate differences

Depressions and anticyclones

Week 2:

Where does weather come from and why does it rain?

Air masses and types of rain

Measuring the weather

Week 3:

Global controls on weather

Global atmospheric circulation

Other weather systems: Monsoons, Tropical cyclones and El Niño/La Niña.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Describe the weather features associated with depressions, anticyclones and the four main air masses which affect the UK

- Interpret a synoptic or weather chart to provide details about wind speed and direction, precipitation and cloud cover

- Describe some of the physical processes which give rise to weather, such as convection, condensation, pressure gradients and the Coriolis force

- Investigate local weather conditions using readily available instruments

- Explain some of the processes which transfer energy through the Earth system, including the transient effects of volcanoes and changes in the Earth’s orbit, and how these processes relate to the Earth’s climate

- Apply an understanding of mid-latitude weather systems to the analysis of weather data and images