Amateur meteorology club (Autistic NYC): Tutorials and educational resources
Listed below is a variety of educational material, both video and text-based.
- Basic introductory meteorology tutorials (brief)
- Weather spotter training by the National Weather Service
- Other NWS volunteer programs
- Introductory online meteorology textbooks and video series (gradeschool level)
- Introductory online meteorology textbooks and video series (college level, for non-science majors)
- Online meteorology textbooks and video series (college level, for science majors)
- Other educational resources
The top category contains brief, intuitive, relatively non-technical overviews. After that, the weather spotter training material also is relatively non-technical, though more in-depth. Then, below the weather spotter stuff and some links to other NWS volunteer programs, this page lists some online textbooks and video sequences, arranged in three categories by academic level: gradeschool, then college non-science major, and then college science major. Then, finally, some miscellaneous resources.
Basic introductory meteorology tutorials (brief)
Below are some brief, intuitive overviews.
Meteorology 101 - The Basics (blog post) by Stormstalker, Jun 11, 2012. (But it contains some serious meaning-changing typos. Corrections and clarifications will be posted here later.)
Meteorology I (video) by Private Pilot Study, Sep 18, 2016 (begins with a long, mostly-irrelevant preamble; the actual tutorial content starts here) -- aimed primarily at airplane pilots, but fine for other people too
Basic Weather Theory (video) by Filip Ivin, Jun 2, 2015 -- also aimed primarily at pilots
Weather 101: A Tutorial on Cloud Types (short video) by NWS Albuquerque, Oct 27, 2013. (See also the article The 10 Basic Types of Clouds by Tiffany Means, ThoughtCo, July 03, 2019)
Weather Forecasting Through the Ages - NASA, Feb 25, 2002
Weather spotter training by the National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) needs trained volunteers to be its eyes and ears regarding severe thunderstorms, flash floods, and other highly localized weather events. Many (though not all) autistic people are detail-oriented enough to be excellent weather spotters.
To be trained, you need to attend a class, usually offered during the spring (and offered online during the COVID crisis). Before attending the class, it's a good idea to read the material below.
Weather Spotter's Field Guide (PDF). Read this before participating in the training below.
NWS SKYWARN Spotter Training online course, via Comet MetEd, covering basics that are the same nationwide. To become a spotter, you need to attend a local class too (see below).
Local NYC-area Spotter Training Schedule and New York, NY Skywarn Page.
- Contact info for local Warning Coordination Meteorologists: New York State, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
Reference Materials for Storm Spotters (National Weather Service in Norman, OK)
Other NWS volunteer programs
Citizen Science - links to various volunteer programs and an overview of several of them (PDF).
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network (CoCoRaHS).
NWS Cooperative Observer program.
NOAA Volunteer Science Opportunities - includes many more volunteer opportunities in addition to the above.
Introductory online meteorology textbooks and video series (gradeschool level)
Although gradeschool level, it's a good idea for adults to read this stuff too, before taking a deep dive into the college-level stuff further down on this page.
Basics of Meteorology (series of video tutorials),
Study.comMeteorology: An Educator's Resource for Inquiry-Based Learning for Grades 5-9 (PDF) published by NASA
Introductory online meteorology textbooks and video series (college level, for non-science majors)
Below are detailed, systematic introductions to meteorology, each the equivalent of a college meteorology intro course for non-majors.
(But even if you're college level, it's probably a good idea to go through the gradeschool-level tutorials, above, before delving into the items below.)
JetStream - An Online School for Weather, a series of tutorials by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), starting with Introduction to the Atmosphere. Another copy on the website of the National Weather Service (NWS).
Meteorology 101 (videos) by Dave Cocchiarella (playlist by Alexis Cordova)
Introduction to Meteorology, PennState University Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
Essentials of Meteorology (PDF), 3rd edition, by C. Donald Ahrens. (See also Glossary of Essentials of Meteorology (PDF), 7th edition)
Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Meteorology (PDF) - from an unknown textbook, but looks good
Weather Prediction: The Tools of the Educated Weather Forecaster by Jeff Haby on his Weather Prediction Education and Resources site
Online meteorology textbooks and video series (college level, for science majors)
Below is meteorology tutorial material aimed at science majors.
(But, even if you have a strong science and math background, it's probably still a good idea to start with the more intuitive, less technical stuff above, before you get into the material below.)
Basic Meteorology: A short course (PDF) by Peter Fortune, 2013
Practical Meteorology: An Algebra-based Survey of Atmospheric Science by Roland Stull, 2018
Introduction to Atmospheric Dynamics (video playlists) - advanced meteorology
Other educational resources
Below are collections of miscellaneous resources.
Timeline of Meteorology - Wikipedia
Resource collections - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Introduction to Meteorology Resources, a collection of links compiled by Paul Quelet
Meteorology & Aviation Weather (list of resources), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) - Europe and world
Extreme temperatures around the world (see also Twitter)