Meteorology – Pilot Rating

Meteorology. You should know: 

• understand the relationship between wind direction and areas of high and low pressure
• be able to describe in detail a cold front and a warm front (typical clouds, conditions, pressure changes, wind changes)
• be able to identify some common high, medium and low cloud types, and give their approximate heights
• fully understand convection (the birth and development of a thermal, through to plotting the progress of a thermal given the ELR and initial temperature)
• understand, and be able to define and use, meteorological terms such as stability, instability, veer, back, ELR, DALR, SALR, tephigram, anabatic, katabatic
• be able to describe the usual conditions associated with high- and low-pressure weather systems
• understand the causes of: valley winds throughout the day, sea breezes and sea-breeze fronts, wave lift, fog (of various types)
• fully understand and be able to interpret a pressure chart – to the extent of being able to describe the current weather at selected locations, and to forecast likely changes
• have a knowledge of common cloud types and what they signify.