Rebecca Waksvik: How to predict weather

How to predict weather

Rebecca Waksvik





Before the world was blessed with technology, people used different methods to predict weather. They looked at the moon, animals, fog and skies for signs. In my hometown we have a saying that goes like this. Red sky at night, sailor's delight; Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. But how do we really predict the weather? Well, we all know that skies are created when water is evaporated from the ocean and turns to condensation clouds. These types of clouds have a fairly white color and do not rain. The condensation then turns to precipitation clouds which has a darker color and is more 'aggressive' and rains. We also can look at the height and thickness of a cloud to see if it will rain or not. If the cloud is dark and the wind is strong, a storm will most likely occur.



We have something that is called fronts. Fronts are boundaries between air masses of different temperature. A cold front is a cold wind moving towards a warm air is called a cold front. A warm front is when the wind is moving towards a warm front. Most of the earts disturbed weather happens near the fronts.



The climate and weather is usually warmer near the cost then in the middle of the country that I live in. Even though Norway lies in the polar region it is warmer here because of the gulf stream that brings us warmer water that goes to our long coast line. If you look at siberia for example, it is much colder than any other place in europe, that is because it is very far from the coastline and fronts to keep the temperature higher.