Weather: A Very Short Introduction

Cover
WEATHER: A Very Short Introduction
Copyright
Contents
Preface
List of illustrations
Chapter 1: The atmosphere
	Temperature changes with altitude
	The layers in the atmosphere
	Atmospheric composition
	The greenhouse effect
Chapter 2: The circulation of the atmosphere
	Global pressure patterns
	The Coriolis effect
	Global winds
	The westerlies
	Airflow around high- and low-pressure regions
	Ocean currents
Chapter 3: Global weather systems
	Air masses
	Fronts
	The Polar Fronts
	Jet streams
	The Polar jets
	The Subtropical jets
	Other jet streams
Chapter 4: Water in the atmosphere
	Humidity and saturation
	Lapse rates, stability, and instability
	The origins of rain
	Clouds
	The formation of clouds
	Cloud streets
Chapter 5: Weather systems
	The development of depressions
	The depression sequence
	The warm front
	The warm sector
	The cold front
	Occluded fronts
	Katabatic fronts
	North or south of a depression centre
	Isolated fronts
	Intensification of depressions
	Thermal and polar lows
	Atmospheric rivers
	High-pressure systems
Chapter 6: Weather in the tropics
	The trade winds
	The Intertropical Convergence Zone
	The monsoons
	Dust storms
Chapter 7: Severe and unusual weather events
	Showers
	Thunderstorms
	Larger convective systems
	Supercells
	Tornadoes
	Lesser whirls
	Tropical cyclones
Chapter 8: Localized weather
	Radiation fog
	Advection fog
	Haze and smog
	Local winds
	Sea, land, and lake breezes
	Valley and mountain winds
	Katabatic winds
	Föhn conditions
	Lake effect snow
	Ice storms and glaze
Chapter 9: Worldwide effects and forecasting
	Teleconnections
	The North Atlantic Oscillation
	The Pacific Decadal Oscillation
	The solar influence
	Space weather
	Weather forecasting
Appendix A: The Beaufort scale of wind speeds
	The Beaufort scale (for use at sea)
	The Beaufort scale (adapted for use on land)
Appendix B: The major cloud types (genera)
Appendix C: Tornado and hurricane intensity scales
	Fujita scale and Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado intensities
	The TORRO scale of tornado intensities
	Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale
Further reading
	General and introductory
	Anecdotal and British weather
	Worldwide weather
	Historical
	More specialized works
	Journals
	Internet links
		General information
		Meteorological offices, agencies, and organizations
		Societies
Index