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A. Why Are Weather Symbols Used?
Some typical surface station plots display cloud cover, temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction, pressure and weather. The plot at the lower right indicates light snow as xx.
A meteorologist must convey a lot of information without using a lot of words. When looking at a weather map, a meteorologist needs to know where the cold air is, where the warm air is, where it is raining, what type of clouds are in the area, and many more things. The reason for this is that forecasts need to be accurate. But, they also need to be timely.
If too much time is spent making the forecast, it will be late. Not many people want to know what the weather was doing twenty minutes ago. Most people want to know what the weather is going to do in the near future. Because of this, weather symbols were invented so that weather maps could be looked at in a short amount of time.
There are a large number of weather symbols in existence. Some are used for weather like rain, snow, and lightning. There are also symbols representing the speed of the wind, types of clouds, air temperature, and air pressure. All of these symbols help meteorologists forecast the weather in a timely manner.
B. What Do Some Weather Symbols Look Like?
The following image shows many different weather ymbols. Look at the symbols, do they look like the weather they represent?
Graphic From Purdue University
For a more complete guide to weather symbols, click here!
C. Invent Your Own Weather Symbols
Are there any that could be different? Can you think of easy ways to represent certain types of weather using symbols that many people would understand? Invent your own weather symbols for the following meteorological events.
- FOG __________
- DUST STORM _________
- THUNDERSTORM __________
- RAIN __________
- LIGHTNING __________
- TORNADO __________
