What Is Meteorology?
If you didn’t know better you might think meteorology might just be the study of “meteorites”. But, that would not be correct. Meteorology is the study of things in the earth’s atmosphere, especially those dealing with weather. So simply put meteorology is the study of weather. To find out what meteorology means we have to go way back to ancient Greece. Back then the word meteor would be any object that might be in the sky, it could be rain, snow, rainbows, or yes, even outer space rocks falling through our atmosphere. Over time the word meteorology came to be known as the study of things in our atmosphere and the study of meteorites fell under the study of astronomy, (which is the study of things beyond earth and its atmosphere.).
Meteorology is the science of weather. It is essentially an inter-disciplinary science because the atmosphere, land and ocean constitute an integrated system. The three basic aspects of meteorology are observation, understanding and prediction of weather. There are many kinds of routine meteorological observations. Some of them are made with simple instruments like the thermometer for measuring temperature or the anemometer for recording wind speed. The observing techniques have become increasingly complex in recent years and satellites have now made it possible to monitor the weather globally. Countries around the world exchange the weather observations through fast telecommunications channels. These are plotted on weather charts and analysed by professional meteorologists at forecasting centres. Weather forecasts are then made with the help of modern computers and supercomputers. Weather information and forecasts are of vital importance to many activities like agriculture, aviation,
