so he combined fluid dynamics with thermodynamics.
His equations, applied to oceanic and
atmospheric
motions, made modern weather forecasting feasible.
After World War I, he and his son, Jacob,
working together on the life-cycle of mid-latitude
cyclones,
realized that most weather activity,
borrowing a concept from the war,
happens at the fronts—
at the boundaries between air masses.
Forecasting
difficulty
Step out from under the trees to check for
clouds.
Wet a finger in your mouth then raise it in the air;
which side is cooler tells the direction of the wind.
Otherwise, in trying to predict the weather, it
is difficult
to get good data, difficult to model atmospheric and
oceanic processes,
and difficult to put it all together in a reasonable time.
To make matters worse, weather is chaotic,
so the further into the future you try to predict
the less accurate your predictions will turn out to be.
Crystal ball
If you had a crystal ball
would you use it to get rich
or would you try to help others?
Would people believe you?
Would you try to convince them?
Would knowing give you the means
of making things better for everyone?
Could you alter the future, really,
or would your trying to do so already be a part
of what your crystal ball would show you?
“Everybody complains about it, but nobody does
anything about it.” Weather is a good topic of conversation
wherever you are, whomever you are with, because it affects almost
everybody but rarely offends anybody, amd it can lead to more
personal conversations. Weather affects agriculture, air and
marine traffic, and other human activities, so that both accurate
and inaccurate weather prediction have huge social and economic
effects.
“Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it.” Weather is a good topic of conversation wherever you are, whomever you are with, because it affects almost everybody but rarely offends anybody, amd it can lead to more personal conversations. Weather affects agriculture, air and marine traffic, and other human activities, so that both accurate and inaccurate weather prediction have huge social and economic effects.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: