It has been particularly hot lately, (reached 48.7 degrees Celsius in Ceduna on Wednesday) and it made me think about how mathematics goes into checking the weather, as well as how it is used to predict the weather.
Weather predictions are a extremely complex system (Mathigon, 2019). Meteorologists use super computers to solve mathematical equations based on models of the atmosphere and oceans, in order to predict the weather. Kang (2019) discusses the ‘extremely complex’ calculations that are required to interpret and collate the extensive quantities of data that is continuously being collected around the world.
In the 1920’s Lewis Fry Richardson devised a method to predict the weather 6 hours in advance (Lynch, 2016). Although the original tests were unsuccessful, this method is the baseline for the method used today to predict weather via computers, world over.
References:
Kang, Wei. (2019). Numerical Weather Prediction: A real life application at the intersection of mathematics and meteorology. Mathermatics of planet earth. Retrieved from http://mpe.dimacs.rutgers.edu/2013/12/12/numerical-weather-prediction-a-real-life-application-at-the-intersection-of-mathematics-and-meteorology/
Mathigon. (2019). Predicting the weather. Retrieved from https://mathigon.org/applications#weather
Lynch, Peter. (2016). Lewis Fry Richardson’s remarkable weather forecast factory. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/lewis-fry-richardson-s-remarkable-weather-forecast-factory-1.2473954
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