Mnemonics

This was one of the most difficult sets of mnemonics to create as there are many terms, often with no apparent logic. Some are more useful than others but I have left in my least favourite ones in case they strike a chord with someone.

Beaufort Scale

On the Beaufort Scale, Force 4 is a Moderate Breeze (the middle of the five "Breezes", Force 8 is a Gale whilst 10 is Storm force. The figures can be made out in the words themselves as you can see on the right.

Fog

Advection Fog = Sea Fog ("advection" has 3 syllables, "sea" has 3 letters)
Radiation Fog = Land Fog ("radiation" has 4 syllables, "land" has 4 letters)

Sea fog is most common in the Spring and Summer, LAnd fog is most common in the faLL or Autumn.

Weather Forecasts

Cold and Warm Fronts

It is easy to remember the shapes and colours of warm and cold fronts. The warm front has a shape like a sun (or at least half of one) and it is a warm, red colour. The cold front has a shape like icicles and has a cold, blue colour.

Backing and Veering

When you put the clock BACK in Autumn, you wind the hands anti-clockwise. When winds back, they move anti-clockwise. Veering then must be the opposite – a clockwise shift.

Visibility

Movement of Weather Systems

The Barometer

Explanation: the ES of "rises" looks a little like 35 (use your imagination) which is the upper limit of the rising and falling term. The IS of "is slow" looks like a 15 which is the upper limit of the "slowly" term. The GO of "quickly go" resembles a 60 when handwritten which is the upper limit of the "quickly" term. "Very rapid" would be anything above that.

It is interesting that both uses of the world "slowly" refer to the numbers 1 and 5. A slowly moving pressure system is travelling at less than 15 knots and a slowly rising/falling barometer is changing by up to 1.5 mb. Unfortunately the other terms do not compare.

General

Flat Clouds = Flat Wind; Lumpy Clouds = Lumpy Winds meaning that at the warm front, the clouds are flat (stratus) and the winds are steady; at the cold front, the clouds are cumulus and the winds squally.