Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)
	Bad Meteorology FAQ
Click on the symbol for its explanation.

Preamble

This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is written by Alistair B. Fraser. It is in response to questions posed over the years by readers of the  Bad Meteorology  pages. If you have arived on this page without having read those pages or the other  Bad Science  pages, then what follows, will probably make little sense.

Although the questions presented here are often ones asked by a specific person, each is chosen to characterize a group of similar questions which have been asked about the topic.

Questions grouped by topics

 Bad Clouds FAQ  (arising out of the  Bad Clouds  page)

Air is a sponge
But, air does have a holding capacity for water vapor
A correct prediction implies a correct reasoning
The air-holding water explanation is just a simplification

 Bad Rain FAQ  (arising out of the  Bad Rain  page)

Terminal velocities
Artistic representation

 Bad Greenhouse FAQ  (arising out of the  Bad Greenhouse  page)

Temperature conversion
Our atmosphere is not the source of the energy
But the Sun and atmosphere emit for different reasons
But our atmosphere would stop emitting without the Sun
Is it the same radiation emited as received?

 Bad Coriolis FAQ  (arising out of the  Bad Coriolis  page)

You have it backwards
Why any spin at all?
Its not the Coriolis force, but the Coriolis effect
The Coriolis force is fictitious, because it cannot do work
The teacher was right
On firing missiles
Temporal scale versus spatial scale
Wacky things attributed to Coriolis

 General meteorological FAQ 

The full moon and frost
Heat lightning

 Teaching FAQ 

Employment of metaphors
Persistence of textbook errors
Teacher intransigence