Meteorology Reading 11
Scales in Meteorology
When it comes to scales they are all over the world in many different forms. In
meteorology scales measure weight, distance and even temperature, and temperature is the
key for this type of science. In science there are three major temperature scales and they are:
Fahrenheit, Celsius, and kelvin. All of these measure heat energy and molecular motion. As
stated previously there are many other scales, even used in science, but these three have been
decided by scientists as the universal ones for meteorology. Fahrenheit is the historical English
system to be able to measure temperature. Fahrenheit is based on water freezing at the
temperature of 32°F and boiling at 212°F. The Celsius scale is based on the freezing and boiling
points of water and the range was arbitrarily set at 100°C. The Kelvin scale measures energy
content and is based on the random motion of the molecules. Even though the Kelvin scale is
one of the three universal ones, Fahrenheit and Celsius are the two main ones for meteorology.
The rest of the world uses Celsius to measure temperature, but the United States continues to
use Fahrenheit. The two of these can be converted to the other using equations to convert.
When it comes to wind, meteorologists categorize air circulation according to the size of it. For
wind there are more scales to measure it with. These four spatial scales of atmospheric
phenomena are: global, synoptic, mesoscale, and microscale. When you group the global and
synoptic scales then together they are known as the macroscale. All of these scales influence
one another at one point in time or another. Then there is the Beaufort Scale (which is what
was shown in class) was one of the first scales to be based on wind speeds. It was first invented
to help sailors guess the winds by actually seeing.
I am not much for scales and always being able to read them correctly or even use them
correctly. This chapter did a nice job of outlining the different scales and how they are used. I
just actually learned the conversion equations for Fahrenheit and Celsius this last semester in
observations of an Algebra I class. So it was nice to see that the equations were in the book to
give students practice at converting them from one scale to another. I also liked to read more
about the Beaufort scale as we only touched upon that briefly while in class.