Announcements

Here's a link to the book applets and animations: Ackerman and Knox

Grades are posted. Cutoffs are below, BUT REMBEMBER, any grade within 2 points of a threshold is reviewed to determine the final grade as described in class and in the 'about course' link. Good luck with next semester.
A => 186; AB => 176; B =>165; BC =>153; C=> 135; D => 122; F < 122.

Final Exam is Sunday, December 14 at 2:45 PM in 105 Psychology.

Review sheet for exam 3 is now available

Review session for the final exam on Thursday, December 11th, from 6pm-7:30pm in Chemistry 1351. Please come with questions prepared.

Grades from test two and homeworks and inclass assignments are availalble under 'check your grade' link to the left. The curve is below, average grades were better than exam 1 - congratulations!

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE HOMEWORK DUE THURS.

Week of December 2

Exams are graded, we will get them back as soon as they are entered in the grade book. This week we will quickly cover Chapter 10 on the midlatitude cyclone then move into Thunderstorms. Read all of Chapter 10, but focus on how the weather changes with the passage of fronts and not on memorizing details about how the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.

Week of November 24

Snow contest is up and running, see rules in the link to the left. Finish Chapter 9 on fronts (emphasis on cold and warm fronts).

Test 2 grades will be posted after we get back from the Thanksgiving break.

Week of November 18

Chapter 9: Pages 249-258 (know the four basic airmass types: cP, mP, cT, mT)

A practice multiple choice exam will be available somethime Tuesday after class. You will only be able to take it once, so study and then use it as a practice test to help you assess how well you know the material. As a reminder, the review session in November 18 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm in Room 105 Psychology. Extra credit proposal will be due on Tuesday, Nov 25.

Week of November 11

We will finish up Chapter 6: Pages 158-185 (no boxes) and Chapter 7: Pages 189-205 (also Box 7.2).

Review sheet for exam 2 is now available

Week of October 28

We will finish Chapter 5 on Tuesday and Chapter 6 on Thursday. Read Chapter 6 prior to Thursday. Try the applets on Chapter 6 to help you learn concepts:

http://profhorn.aos.wisc.edu/wxwise/AckermanKnox/

Be familiar with the key terms of Chapter 6, in particular: Anticyclone, Buys Ballot's Law, Coriolis force, cyclone, Frictional force, Geostrophic balance and wind, Gradient balance and wind, Gravitational force, Guldberg-Mohn balance, Hydrostatic balance, Isobaric charts, Land breeze, pressure gradient force, sea breeze, synoptic scale.

Week of October 21

We are working on Chapter 5. Readings include: Pages 133- 138; Pages 147-156. We will also cover satellites and radars (Chapter 5 sections labeled Meteorological Satellite Observations and Radar Observations) after discussing atmospheric optics.

Here are examples of good answers to the essay questions from your fellow students.

Week of October 14

A new pretest is available

Scores for exam one are posted in the Check your grade (see link to the left). If you have problems - contact the TA - NOT THE INSTRUCTOR! Cutoff for letter grades for this exam are listed in the figure below.

Start Chapter 5 - Atmospheric Optics part; not instrumentation.

Review sheet is now available

Practice cloud identification: More on clouds and some quizzes

THERE IS A HOMEWORK DUE ON TUESDAY, OCT 7

The Frost forecast contest has ended with frost this morning (Thursday). To get the extra credit you had to make the correct forecast by 5 pm on Wednesday - sorry but those late night Wednesday forecast do not count.

Week of Sept 29

Room 1351 Chemistry has been assigned for the AOS 100/101 review seesion. The room is reserved for Tuesday, October 7, from 6:00-7:30pm.

The frost forecasting contest is now running. See directions in the link to the left. We will continue with Chapter 4. So, do those readings. The pre-test is ready this weekend.

Week of Sept 22

A new homework was posted on Sept 23 and is due Sept 25 in class.

Thursday we will begin CHAPTER 4.

Mike the TA has to modify his office hours this week, so if you need to see him get in contact with him before going to his office hours.

A new PRETEST is now available and you can take it up until Monday night.

Readings for this week include pages 84 to 100 of Chapter 4.

Week of Sept 15

PRETEST is now available - use the link to the right labeled "this week's pre-class assessment" to access it. Photo of the week winners from last week were also posted on Friday.

Read Chapter 3 (Boxes are not required reading). Important key terms: Stablity, temperature cycles (diurnal and annual), Average temperatures and anomalies, Lag, Lapse rate, inversions, and Wind-chill. Think of temperature changes in terms of how these changes relate to energy gains versus energy losses.

Week of Sept 8

Syllabus is now set; see link to the left.

Read Chapter 2 (Box 2.1 and 2.2 are not required reading. Be familiar with the key terms at the end of the chapter. We are concerned with how energy is transferred and the balance between energy gains versus energy losses. We will apply energy transfer concepts in class lecture.

Week of Sept 1

A homework is due on Tuesday - see the homework link to the left.

Photo of the week winners have been selected for this week!

Welcome to class!

Weather engulfs us. Its influence can be both dramatic and subtle. Weather tempers how we dress, how we live, the music we play, and the art we create. It can destroy our homes and threaten our lives. It affects our daily activities, leisure, holidays, transportation, commerce, agriculture, and nearly every aspect of our lives. Our fascination with the weather has led to 24-hour weather networks, feature-length motion pictures, and an explosion of detailed weather data over the Internet. Weather and its ever-changing nature has always drawn the attention of people and at times altered their lives.

Mark Twain said "everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it". You may not be able to change the weather, but you can discover the processes that determine weather. Learning about meteorology can and should be both enjoyable and relevant to your everyday life. Knowledge gained from this class can help you better understand nightly television weather reports and interpret news articles on impending climate change, greenhouse warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, the causes and effects of El Niño, and severe weather. You will experience and be influenced by these events throughout your lifetime and this class will help you to grasp the fundamentals and gain an appreciation of the complexities involved with these issues.

PRE-CLASS Assessment will not be availalble until the second week of class. Check-your grade will not be available until after the add/drop period.

Reading Assignments

For Sept 2 and 4 - Chapter 1

Be familiar with the key terms at the end of the chapter. We are concerned with how energy is transferred and the balance between energy gains versus energy losses.

Be familiar with the key terms, in particular: climate, condensation, density, evaporation, front, hydrologic cycle, isobar, isotherm, meteorology, micron, millibar, pressure, station model, stratopause, stratosphere, time zones, trace gas, transpiration, tropopause, troposhere, warning, watch, water vapor, weather. Know the symbols for fronts and how to decode the surface model. Here is a link to help you with learning how to decode the surface model:

Here's some information if you are interested in majoring in meteorology.