Short note on Weather
Weather comprises all the various phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of a planet. “Weather” is normally taken to mean the activity of these phenomena over a period of time or up to a few days. The average weather over a longer period is known as the climate.
This aspect of the weather is studied with great interest by climatologists, for any signs of climate change. On Earth, the regular events include wind, thunderstorms, rain, sleet, hail, and snow, which occur in the troposphere or the lower part of the atmosphere.
Weather is driven by differences in energy received from the sun. Due to the various angles that sunlight intersects the earth, different parts of it are heated to different extents. This causes temperature differences, which lead to global wind, as well as, indirectly, all other weather phenomena. Direct causes of weather are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, wind speed, and elevation.
The Earth’s atmosphere is one large inter-related system, so small changes in one part can have large effects in other parts, i.e., it is a chaotic system. This makes it very difficult to accurately predict short term weather changes more than a few days in advance, though weather forecasters large and small are continually working to improve this limit through the science of the study of weather: meteorology.