7. Predicting the weather

Making a forecast

Very complex weather models have been developed that use the gathered data to make a prediction of the weather in the next 15 minutes, next hour, next 24 hours, next 6 days, next month.

The further out the forecast, the less accurate it becomes due the sensitivity of weather to tiny changes. But short term forecasting is now quite good.

The computer models are so complex and compute-heavy that super-computers are used. For example is takes a supercomputer about an hour to make a 6 day forecast of the UK.

Severe weather warning are also made to warn people to be mindful of extreme or downright dangerous weather coming their way, such as high winds, rain, flood, storm.

Distributing the forecast

The general weather is broadcast by television and national radio.

But people are also very interested in the likely weather in their locality. For this level of detail, local radio stations will broadcast information and there are web sites and portals that show local weather conditions by entering a post code.

Smart phone weather 'apps' are also available that download the latest forecast in your area.

Holiday destinations such as Ski resorts report up to the minute data that includes temperature, wind speed, visibility, snow cover, likelihood of snow.