How to read a synoptic weather chart

Find out what the lines, arrows and letters mean on synoptic weather charts.

The word 'synoptic' simply means a summary of the current situation. In weather terms this means the pressure pattern, fronts, wind direction and speed and how they will change and evolve over the coming few days. Temperature, pressure and winds are all in balance and the atmosphere is constantly changing to preserve this balance.

You may also enjoy:

We are the Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, and every day of the week we bring you a morning weather forecast and an afternoon weather forecast so that wherever you are in the UK we have you covered. Forecasts and any weather warnings are accurate at time of recording.

To ensure you have the most up to date weather information, check the hourly forecast and live warnings on the Met Office website or app.

[sophieminter]

The music is calming, but it sounds like it should accompany a period drama, rather than a weather chart.

[ilikeyeet]

why would they put depressing music I literally crying in class watching a video about weather

[brucethemusicguy]

IM in tears, this was such a sad story

[alestavira]

Thank you. Very clear knowledge for beginners.

[ClimateAnalyticsTechnology]

thanks synoptic weather chart important parts of weather

[vicsaul]

Love the explanation, music choice 😱, how about sailing by, sailing, Christopher cross, Enya..sail away, ..anything! 😢

[polar-jake]

Does anyone have a clue in regards the name of the song, I love it. Cheers!

[soodth]

Thank you 2 minutes and 34 seconds I learned a lot

[ItzCJ]

Who was here for geography homework?😂😂

[RWBHere]

Thanks for this. Most of it was known already, but you have explained a few unknown things clearly for me. A couple of questions arise, however:
1) What does a dotted black line mean? Is this the same thing as a solid black line?
I2) 'm also seeing front lines with alternating blue and red triangles on opposite sides of the line. What exactly do they mean?

[rubendarilov]

Excellent video. Extremely distracting music!

[izererebeccamusovi]

very helpful and easy to understand thanks

[SuperCatbert]

i never was big into classical music, but this is really nice. really suits the topic. thanks!

[bts_]

What with music 🤦🏼‍♀️ so disturbing, but the presentation is great 👍🏼

[steveandthedogs]

Very good, but please turn the music off.

[BeckytheTraveller]

Useful information but the music is not needed and the text is way too fast!

[NeetoleMitra]

Please good souls... someone spell out the track name!

[suecj]

Why is there music instead of speech in this video

[memerhd]

ah yes the music is quite dark as mentioend

[anthonygleave]

The content is good, however, I teach meteorology to children and I feel they would switch off watching this. The video needs enthusiastic audio and less depressing music.