Book Objectives

The purpose of this book is to provide the foundation of information for successful completion of a Geography of Weather and Climate course. There are no prerequisites for the course as it’s intended for first and second year college students.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Analyze, describe, and diagram the basics of the Earth’s atmosphere and major atmospheric processes including energy, pressure, wind, precipitation, air masses, fronts, and storms.
• Explain the relationships between the parts of the Earth’s energy budget.
• Use the tools and technologies used to produce weather forecasts and to be able to locate and interpret weather maps and satellite images.
• Explain the factors controlling global temperature and precipitation patterns and describe the distribution of climates of the world.
• Describe the impacts of weather on human activity and impacts of humans on climate.
• Describe the impacts of weather and climate on the physical landscape.
• Describe and analyze past, present, and future trends in natural and anthropogenic climate change.