August 3, 2009

Field Report: Meteorology

Forecast for Meteorology 1

Warren Faidley

A tornado forms over south-central Kansas in May 2004.

By Peter Monaghan

Who has not muttered, exasperated by another weather forecast that turned out wrong, "It's not rocket science!"

But, of course, predicting the weather is rocket science—at least, it's satellite science, and remote-sensing science, and algorithmic numeromancy of a high order.

Once a matter of recognizing patterns—"If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, go winter and come not again" (but keep close thy wellies)—meteorology has greatly refined its predictive