The Aathif Hameed Show

May 7, 2021

The Marshmallow Test

April 30, 2021

Apollo 13

Listen to know what happened to the Apollo 13 mission

April 16, 2021

Weather Technology

There is nothing we can really do about the weather. But, over the last few centuries we have developed techniques that help us to predict it. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology telling us what the conditions will be like in the atmosphere for a given location and time. Human beings have actually been trying to predict the weather for millennia and what’s interesting about this is that our ancestors used techniques similar to ours, but in a primitive way. They looked for patterns in atmospheric changes. However, in the 19th century, we began to develop instruments, to more accurately help our understanding of the changes. Weather forecasts are made by collecting data about the current state of the atmosphere at a given place and using our understanding of what happens in the atmosphere to predict how it will change. In the early days of modern forecasting, we relied on detecting changes in atmospheric pressure, current weather conditions and sky condition. Then people would do a lot of work and calculations to try and figure out how it might change. They were often wrong too. However, now we have the help of computers that use models taking even more information about the atmosphere into account. Even with the help of new technologies, we can still make mistakes as the atmosphere is very complicated. This means that forecasts become less accurate for days further into the future. They are most accurate for days ahead rather than weeks. Even if we developed a perfect model of the atmosphere and had all data about it, that was 100% accurate, the computer processing time would be very long and the weather would have happened before the computer finished its calculations. Humans are generally curious beings and I ask, why do we want to predict the weather anyway? One important use is, so that we can know if there is any hazardous weather on our way and can issue weather warnings. These can protect life and property. Forecasts based on temperature and rain levels are important for agriculture. For average people, like you and me, weather forecasts can help us decide what clothes we might need to wear, or if we might need to pick up an umbrella in the afternoon. It can also be a good idea to check the weather before you decide to go on a hike or go camping or even play sports . Some people don’t mind walking in the rain, but some of us, would prefer not to be caught in it.