Weather Basics: Identify and Understand Clouds, Precipitation, and More

by Ryan Henning

Overview

Your Quick Guide to Clouds and the Weather

The weather fascinates us. It’s captivating, beautiful—and sometimes dangerous. It’s a part of our everyday lives, and it influences everything from travel plans to daily routines. The weather deserves our attention and understanding. To that end, meteorologist Ryan Henning provides a straighforward, easy-to-understand introduction to weather basics in a conveniently sized booklet.

Weather Basics begins with an identification guide to clouds, broken into identifying them from below and from a distance. Next, the booklet explains various forms of precipitation, including rain, snow, sleet, and freezing rain. Perhaps the most important section of the booklet is about severe weather safety. Ryan explains how to identify weather conditions that could produce severe weather. He details the causes, potential effects, and what you should do in the event of occurrences like thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, and blizzards. That section is followed by one on fair weather observations, including sun dogs and rainbows. An introduction to weather forecasting rounds out the booklet, where readers learn about interpreting weather forecasts and available model information.

This meteorology reference presents the types of phenomena you might encounter at home or in nature. It’s pocket-sized format makes it handy to keep in your glove box, tent, or desk drawer, so it’s always there when you need it. Whether you’re at home with your family or on a solo backpacking adventure, this guide can give you the information needed to stay safe and enjoy the great outdoors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647550332
Publisher:	Adventure Publications, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/30/2021
Series:	Adventure Skills Guides
Pages:	28
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ryan Henning was born and raised in Minnesota, where he spent most of his formative years in the Minneapolis suburb of Victoria. There, he developed a fascination with the weather—thanks largely to his dad’s career in the airline industry. (Ryan loved the radar!) After earning a degree in synoptic meteorology from Purdue University, Ryan worked as an aviation meteorologist for eight years. He runs his own website and weather blog.

Read an Excerpt

Cirrus Clouds

What They Look Like: Cirrus clouds are wispy clouds found extremely high in the sky. In fact, cirrus clouds can often be found above commercial airliners at cruising altitude. 

What They Say About the Weather: Because they are so high, they rarely have much to do with the weather at the surface, and they are generally indicative of fair weather. If you are seeing cirrus clouds, either the intervening layers are so dry that clouds can’t form, or cold air is found fairly low in the atmosphere.

Cirrostratus Clouds

What They Look Like: Cirrostratus clouds are fields of clouds that are fairly wispy and at a very high altitude. Cirrostratus clouds don’t really look like clouds at all; they look more like haze. They’re easy to spot when they form a halo around the sun and, especially, the moon at night.

What They Say About the Weather: They form because of high moisture levels at the altitude (20,000 feet and higher) of cirrus clouds; this can indicate the advance of a warm front, as the cool, dense air remains at the surface with the more buoyant air hanging out aloft. Because the haziness usually precedes a warm front, the haze of cirrostratus can mean that clouds will eventually thicken, and stratus clouds at lower levels are soon to follow.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Clouds

Precipitation

Severe Weather Safety

Fair Weather Observations

Weather Forecasting