A View From Space: Weather Forecasting for Kids Have you ever
watched the weather reports on television and wondered how
exactly the reporters know what the weather will be days from
now? In a way they do guess, but it's definitely not a random
guess! Weather forecasters, or meteorologists, use a number of
special methods, devices, and computer software to help them
out. Day after day, meteorologists use computers to record data
about the weather. This large amount of information about the
past weather helps them to predict what the weather will be like
in the future. As a simple example, suppose you see dark, black
clouds in the sky several times, followed by heavy rain. The
next time you see those clouds, you'll know immediately that it
will probably rain soon. In a similar way, using higher
scientific techniques, meteorologists are able to observe the
weather and generate patterns and predictions. Meteorologists
use a number of symbols that they lay out on a weather map to
quickly convey information about