ABSTRACT
Meteorological phenomena encompass a wide range of space and time scales, from the instantaneous gusts of wind that swirl up leaves and litter to the global-scale wind systems that shape the annual planetary climate. The weather systems discussed in Chapter 7 are conventionally designated as synoptic-scale systems, whereas tornadoes and thunderstorms (with a spatial scale of 1-50 km and a time scale of a few hours) are referred to as mesoscale systems. Other wind systems of comparable scale to the latter, like mountain and valley winds and landsea breezes, can give rise to distinctive local climates (see Chapter 5C). Small-scale turbulence, with wind eddies of a few metres dimension and lasting only a few seconds, represent the domain of micrometeorology, or boundary layer climates.
