Motivate...
In the quest to peer into the weather's future, perhaps the most enticing source of data is the numerical weather models. No doubt in the course of the nightly weathercast, you've heard the on-air meteorologists say something like, "We just don't know the path of the storm at the moment because the models are not in agreement." Just who or what are these "models" anyway? Is there some ultra-secret consortium of good-looking weather prognosticators? Furthermore, are these "models" even worth considering if they can't even agree on a weather forecast?
Indeed, insights about the current and future state of the atmosphere can be gained from weather data created by computers (that is, computer models). Such data are powerful tools but are certainly not all-knowing. You will need to tread carefully when gathering and interpreting the weather data in this lesson. But first, you need to become familiarized with how computers can be used to predict the future state of the atmosphere.
Let's get started!