5.1.4

Sunshine, Humidity & Air Pressure

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Sunshine, Humidity and Air Pressure

As well as temperature, precipitation, cloud cover and wind, meteorologists also measure sunshine, humidity and air pressure.

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Sunshine

  • Sunshine is measured in the numbers of hours of sunshine per day, month or year.
  • Holidaymakers, event planners and farmers always want sunshine!
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Sunshine records in Britain

  • Chichester in Sussex was named the sunniest city in the UK in April 2018.
    • Chichester usually has more than 1,900 hours of sunshine per year.
  • Glasgow in Scotland is one of the dullest cities in Europe with less than 1,203 hours of sunshine in some years.
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Humidity

  • Humidity is the amount of water vapour as a gas in the atmosphere.
  • It is usually invisible to the human eye.
  • The most humid cities on Earth are generally located on the coast close to the equator.
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Air pressure

  • This is the weight of air pushing down on the surface of the Earth at one location.
  • Air weighs very little.
  • However the Earth's atmosphere continues for many kilometres above the surface.
  • There is so much air that it creates enough weight (or pressure of air pushing down) for us to be able to measure it.
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Measuring air pressure

  • Air pressure is measured with a barometer in Pascals or millibars.
  • Older measurements include:
    • Inches of mercury.
    • Pounds per square inch.
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High and low pressure

  • Weather forecasters often talk about high or low pressure.
    • High pressure usually gives fine settled weather.
    • Low-pressure systems (for example weather depressions) often bring rain and storms.

Jump to other topics

1Geography Skills

2Geology of the UK

3Geography of the World

4Development

5Weather & Climate

6The World of Work

7Natural Resources

8Rivers

9Coasts

10Glaciers

11Tectonics

12Climate Change

13Global Population & Inequality

14Urbanisation

15Ecosystems

16Life in an Emerging Country

17Analysis of Africa

18Analysis of India

19Analysis of the Middle East

20Analysis of Bangladesh

21Analysis of Russia

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