Become a Weather Watcher
You do not need any equipment to start watching the weather. You need a window, somewhere to write things down, and the habit of actually looking up.
What a weather watcher does
Weather watchers observe, and then describe what they saw. Every day:
- Look at the sky. Are the clouds fluffy, thin, or dark?
- Feel the wind. A gentle breeze, or a strong gust?
- Note what is falling, if anything — rain, snow, or nothing at all.
- Write it down, with the date and the time.
The writing-down part is what turns looking out of the window into weather watching. One day's notes tell you very little. Two weeks of notes start to show you patterns.
Reading the clouds
Clouds are the easiest thing to start with, because their shape tells you something about what is coming.
- Cumulus — puffy and white, the ones you see on a fine day.
- Stratus — flat and gray, spread across the whole sky. Often brings drizzle.
- Cirrus — thin and wispy, very high up, made of ice crystals.
- Cumulonimbus — huge, tall and dark. These are the storm clouds, and they bring heavy rain, hail and thunder.
You look up and see a huge, tall, dark cloud building overhead. What kind is it, and what would you write in your notes?
- Cirrus — thin ice clouds, so expect a clear day
- Cumulus — puffy and white, so expect fine weather
- Cumulonimbus — a storm cloud, so expect heavy rain or thunder
Make a prediction
Once you have a few days of notes, start guessing what tomorrow will do — then check whether you were right. Getting it wrong is not a problem; it is the part where you learn what to look for next time.
Keep watching. Weather is the one enormous thing happening above your head that you can study without leaving home.