This black & white educational film is about Synoptic Meteorology, which is the analysis and prediction of large-scale weather systems; understanding relatively large-scale weather-producing disturbances like frontal depressions, tropical cyclones, and anticyclones. Copyright is circa the 1930s.

Opening titles: Meteorology – Synoptic Meteorology, produced by Science Films Ltd

(:06-:32). Hands turn the pages of a book that contain many weather maps. A man writes down the air temperature from the dry bulb thermometer, the humidity from the wet bulb. Maximum thermometer gives the maximum temperature reached during the day. The minimum temperature records the lowest temperature reached during the night. A man looks up at the sky and records sun with some clouds. A glass measure contains water from rain which is measured (:33-3:00). A hand jots down numbers with a pen. Information that was written in a book is looked over. Map of Europe. Soviet Union on the map (3:01-4:55). Countries are pointed out on the map that provide weather information. Paris, France, Berlin, Germany, Rome, Italy and Moscow, Russia, on the map. London, England to Washington, D.C., U.S.A. (4:56-7:50). Title: The Weather Map. Different letter symbols for certain weather definitions. Title: Pressure Distribution. Barometric pressure in England. Isobars and millibars are explained (7:51-10:09). Title: Temperature Distribution. Temperature in fahrenheit (10:13-10:55). Title: Dew Point Distribution. Dew point is plotted in fahrenheit. Dew point readings. Dry cold air and moist warm air. Title: Wind Distribution. Wind shown in opposite directions on a map between hot and cold air. Title: Air Masses. Polar air mass. Dry cold air mass. Maritime polar air (10:56-13:39). Continental polar air mass. Maritime tropical air mass. Continental tropical air. A front is a boundary between two air masses (13:40-16:24). Title: Depressions. A wave shape distortion shown on a map. Arrows signify the wind directions. Title: The Warm Front. Warm air and cold air. Title: The Cold Front. Cold air and warm air masses on a map (16:25-18:17). Warm sector of a depression. Warm air rises over cold air. Air expansion. Condensation shown in a cloud (18:18-20:20). Reporting stations on a map. Cirrus clouds and nimbostratus clouds. Rain falls from a cloud. Temperatures and dew points in coordination with arriving fronts and rain (20:21-22:19). Wind force as warm front approaches. Warm and cold from shown on map approaching. Warm and cold air along with a cloud shown. Warm air is more violent at this time (22:20-24:40). Cold air announced by a squall. Heavy squall explained. Warm sector near the cold front can increase heavy rain (24:41-26:07). Title: Tendency. Isobars, a line on a map connecting points having the same atmospheric pressure at a given time or on average over a given period. Tendency is explained with regards to warm and cold fronts. Different reporting stations on the map report (26:08-27:59). Cold front advances and overtakes the warm front. An inclusion. Cold air mass shown on a map with wind directions. Rain fall occurs (28:00-29:49). Circulating polar air mass. Rising pressure. Title: Secondaries. Trough of low pressure. North America and Europe on a map. Depressions created by a front heading towards Europe. Dense cold air. Anticyclone, a weather system with high atmospheric pressure at its center, around which air slowly circulates in a clockwise (northern hemisphere) or counterclockwise (southern hemisphere) direction. Anticyclones are associated with calm, fine weather (29:50-33:01). Compression air. Upper air. Clouds. Title: Radiation fog. Animation of mountains and the moon. Low cloud cover over the mountains (33:02-34:42). Title: Ridge or Wedge of High Pressure. Ridge on a map. Title: Col. A col is also called a neutral point and is the point of intersection of a trough and a ridge in the pressure pattern of a weather map. High and low pressure on a weather map. Pilot stands with a forecasting expert. Plane flies in the sky (34:43-36:52). End credits (36:53-36:59).

Synoptic meteorology is concerned with understanding relatively large-scale weather-producing disturbances like frontal depressions, tropical cyclones, and anticyclones – features that have a horizontal scale of many hundreds to a few thousand kilometers, and a lifetime counted in days rather than hours.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com