It’s HOT! Here’s a weather ✨acrostic✨

As meteorologists, we gain a vast education in math, science, and physics. Telling the weather requires us to look at many aspects of data, from archives of weather conditions to the clouds outside.

The American Meteorological Society has a glossary full of terms explaining weather variables and equations we learned in our courses. A few of those terms were taken and applied to each letter of the phrase SUMMER WITH KSAT to give a small taste of the meteorological world.

S - Shear

Variations in the wind direction known as wind shear. The variation is in the vertical, and can determine the formation of a tornado.

U - Universal time

Abbreviated as UTC, this is the standard of time associated with the location of Greenwich in London, England. Almost all weather models are in UTC time, so we know time conversions like the back of our hand.

M - Meteorology

The study of weather based on the relationship between earth’s surfaces and the atmosphere. Not the study of meteors. 😉 This relationship creates weather phenomena that can be predicted on a short time scale- typically as far out as a week.

M- Mirage

When you look down the road on a hot day and it looks like there’s water on the road, that’s a mirage. Light is refracting through the air, which creates a wavy image on the horizon.

E - Enhanced Fujita Scale

The damage scale for tornadoes ranging from EF0 to EF5. Each classification is based on the sustained wind speed of the tornado.

R - Radiosonde

A meteorological instrument with a huge balloon attached that gives a profile of the atmosphere by measuring temperature, pressure, wind, and humidity.

W - Windrow cloud

Another name for undulatus clouds. These are the horizontal, rolling clouds that are usually found high in the sky.

I - Instability

Air is disturbed, causing it to be displaced from its general position. This disturbance can result in air rising, known as an updraft, creating thunderstorms. Air can also be displaced downwards creating a downdraft

T - Thermodynamics

A science explaining the relationship between temperature, energy, and work. If you’re familiar with the phrase “Energy is neither created nor destroyed,” then you know the First Law of Thermodynamics.

H - Hydrometeor

The technical name for precipitation! Liquid or solid water particles falling in the air - rain drops, hail, sleet, snow, etc.

K - Knot

The measurement for wind speed in the nautical system. Pilots, boat operators, and meteorologists are familiar with this unit of measurement.

S - Scud

Clouds that form lower than the normal cloud base. This is usually because of a difference between air mass characteristics around rain shafts.

A - Air

The air we breathe is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with the remainder being water vapor and trace gasses. The make-up of the air plays a huge role in its behavior and the effect it has on the weather.

T - Taylor series

An infinite mathematical series that we had to solve by hand :(