Forecasting Weather Elements.
Cloudiness, precipitation, and temperature are among the most important elements of any weather forecast. Cloudiness and precipitation may be subdivided into two main categories:
occurrences associated with frontal activity, occurrences in air masses not associated with fronts.
There are many factors that influence the daily heating and cooling of the atmosphere. Some of these factors are cloudiness, humidity, nature of the underlying surface, surface winds, latitude, and the vertical temperature lapse rate.
Cloudiness is quite obvious in its influence on heat gain at the earth's surface during daylight hours, and also heat loss due to radiational cooling at night.
This chapter discusses the forecasting of middle and upper cloudiness, precipitation, and local temperature. The forecasting of convective clouds and associated precipitation, along with fog and stratus is covered in chapter 5 of this manual.