Common Meteorological Terms and Their Meanings - Wind
andrew
Clearing Away the Jargon
Sometimes trying to understand what's happening with the weather is made difficult due to all the technical terms used. For example, what does "Expect warm temperatures today - it will be muggy with high humidity with a chance of showers in the evening. Light winds from the NW". To kick things off, below you will see a screen shot from Weather...
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Equinox
andrew
Clearing Away the Jargon
21st March 2019 sees the equinox occur. What is an equinox? Well this is when the suns rays shine directly on the equator This means that in both hemispheres, the length of the night is the same as the length of the day. There is no better way to explain what this looks like than a picture. This one was taken from a GOES satellite, 36,000km's above...
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Summer Solstice is here - Solstices and Equinoxes
andrew
Clearing Away the Jargon
Welcome to Summer Solstice for 2018. I'm choosing my words carefully. Often this is referred to as the longest day, which is partially correct, because it is based on daylight hours.  Of course the day still remains 24 hours long, but the number of daylight hours are the greatest they will be for this year. In 2018, for Wellingt...
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What was it? A Land Spout, Water Spout, Funnel Cloud or Tornado
andrew
Clearing Away the Jargon
One of the reasons why the NZ Weather Enthusiasts group exists is because of the lack of clarity around weather events, often misreported in the media. This misreporting often leads to further confusion in the publics mind. As weather buffs I don't think it's a matter of being too picky. Science, and in this case Meteorology is confusing enough to ...
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What Causes a Tornado?
andrew
Clearing Away the Jargon
Niwa provide a great explaination behind the tornado in Waikato on October 29, 2018. You can read more about it here The why behind the Waikato tornado?️1️⃣ Significant upper atmosphere disturbance.2️⃣ Much colder (?) than usual pocket of air aloft.3️⃣ Time of year - increasing spring sun angle leads to more surface heating. Lends itself to more at...
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