FBE 612 Weather and Climate

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the course student should be able to:

1. Develop an understanding of the fundamental principles of weather and climate dynamics how it influences the functioning of ecological systems
2. Apply concepts, principles and techniques of weather and climate in forecasting and simple predictions of climate patterns.

Course Content

Aspects of the earth and its atmosphere – the earth’s atmosphere, origin, composition and structure of the atmosphere, energy and warming of the atmosphere seasonal and daily temperatures, humidity, and condensation, cloud development, precipitation and its measurements, winds – small scale, local and global systems. The concepts of climate change, weather forecasting, and climate modelling. Tropical storms, their formation and impacts.

Required Reading

1. Ahrens DC 1982. Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate and the Environment. Fourth Edition, West Publishing Company New York 577 pp

Recommended Reading

1. Mather, J.R. 1974. Climatology: Fundamentals and Applications. McGraw-Hill New York 165 pp