This book is for all who are interested in their own daily weather.
It is a professional meteorologist's running commentary on the weatherwhich he himself had already observed and recorded ten years earlier asa schoolboy when he had no more facilities than have since becomeavailable to everybody. Having thus encouraged the reader, its purpose isto illustrate the analysis and forecasting of weather with local observationsand charts from the Meteorological Offce.
For readers unfamiliar with weather theory the first chapter just outlinesits ideas. For those who are also unfamiliar with Meteorological Offceprocedure the second chapter explains how (for brevity) all the reports arecoded. The coded weather reports are then listed with running com-mentaries explaining the weather analysis. Even with only one season(one autumn) the main ideas of the subject are covered. Diffcult ones forbeginners are purposely explained with the least possible technical ormathematical language. The air's elementary thermodynamics, tephigramsand radiation, for instance, are summed up in an unusual way, after whichthe account of its hydrodynamics or wind theory also includes an originalworking design, while ideas of simplified charts and classification ofweather types are put forward. Another original feature is that the illustra-tions are not specially selected, but are taken day by day as they come.After the year 1948 the standard international codes were altered.
Readers using Meteorological Office Daily Weather Reports (abbreviatedto D. W.R.) will now find the new codes in other Air Ministry Meteoro-logical Offce publications sold by H.M. Stationery Offce. The weatherreports in this book have accordingly all been recoded. But as the writer,like many readers, originally had no better guide than D. W.R. Introductions,which were not really a guide but just a short dictionary to the codes, heunwittingly departed slightly from standard practice. As the old codescould not be exactly translated into the new ones either, he cannot attemptin this book to stick to the new codes exactly, but explains the codes heprefers to use to make the weather reports as clear to the reader as possible.
Although not reproduced throughout the book, many charts copiedfrom Air Ministry D. W.R. are included to illustrate weather-map types.
To quote the book's own conclusion, not only may the general readerlearn something of what lies behind the Meteorological Offce forecastsand inferences and how far he may make his own from Daily WeatherReports, but other beginners in the Meteorological Office itself who alreadyknow how to make weather charts will have a better idea how to use them.
Acknowledgements are due to the staff of the Cambridge UniversityPress for valuable advice and assistance in the preparation of the book, tothe Director, Meteorological Offce, Air Ministry, London, and to theController of H.M. Stationery Offce for permission to include extractsfrom offcial publications.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix-xi

PREFACE xiii-xiv

I FIRST PRINCIPLES 1

II THE CODES 8

III WEATHER TYPES 22

1 First observations 22

2 Fronts 23

3 Wind 27

4 Fine weather type 31

5 Fair weather type 32

6 Rainy weather type 33

7 Showery weather type 34

IV AIR THERMODYNAMICS 35

1 Wet and potential temperatures 35

2 Convection 42

3 Visibility 45

4 Fog 48

5 Thunderstorms 51

V AIR TEMPERATURES 56

1 Tephigrams 56

2 Potential instability 63

3 Radiation 65

4 Summary 73

VI AIR MASSES p. 76

1 Equivalent temperatures 76

2 Summary 79

VII AIR HYDRODYNAMICS 81

Gradient wind and fronts 81

VIII SYNOPTIC CHARTS 96

1 Introduction 96

2 Illustrations of anticyclones 102

3 Illustrations of depressions 108

4 Cold front development and motion 114

5 Depression development and motion 118

6 Cyclogenesis, ridge and wave developments 126

7 Atlantic frontal analysis 129

8 Minor troughs 132

9 'Text-book' depression 133

10 Wind scales 136

IX FRONTS AND ANTICYCLONES 143

1 Double fronts 143

2 Anticyclonic weather 145

3 Minor fronts and virtual temperatures 149

4 Anticyclones and their motion 153

5 Further waves and fronts 158

X UPPER WINDS AND FORECASTING 164

1 Isentropic and isobaric analysis 164

2 Comparison of similar synoptic situations 179

3 Practical forecasting 182

INDEX 193

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