Weather Analysis and Forecasting

This practical text is aimed at the operational weather forecaster as a guide to interpreting patterns seen in water vapor images in terms of dynamical process taking place within the atmosphere and their relation to diagnostics available from numerical weather prediction models. In particular, it concentrates on the use of the close relationship (in dynamically active regions of the atmosphere) between water vapor imagery and the potential vorticity fields (measuring circulation dynamics) in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.