| | - weather forecasting
- the prediction of the weather through application of the principles of physics, supplemented by a variety of statistical and empirical techniques. In addition to predictions of atmospheric phenomena themselves, weather forecasting includes predictions of changes on the Earth's surface caused by atmospheric conditions-e.g., snow and ice cover, ... [13 Related Articles]
- weather map
- any map or chart that shows the meteorological elements at a given time over an extended area. The earliest weather charts were made well before 1835 by collecting synchronous weather reports by mail. The first telegraphic collection of synoptic meteorological reports and their mapping for forecasting was accomplished by Urbain-J.-J. ... [3 Related Articles]
- weather modification
- the deliberate or the inadvertent alternation of atmospheric conditions by human activity, sufficient to modify the weather on local or regional scales. [2 Related Articles]
- Weather Report
- (from the article "Shorter, Wayne") Throughout the 1970s and much of the '80s, Shorter and keyboard player Joe Zawinul together led Weather Report, a fusion band that explored an uncommon variety of sound colours. He returned frequently to the tenor saxophone and in later years led his own fusion music groups.development of jazz-rock
- Weather Research and Forecasting Model
- (from the article "Earth Sciences") ...The U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the U.S. Air Force Weather Agency announced that National Weather Service and air force weather forecasters had adopted the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) for day-to-day operational use. The WRF improved upon previous models in predictions of several types of ...
- weather satellite
- (from the article "weather satellite") any of a class of Earth satellites designed to monitor meteorological conditions (see Earth satellite).
weather satelliteGOES-8, a U.S. weather satellite, 1994.NOAA in Space Collecti
- weather station
- (from the article "weather forecasting") Routine production of synoptic weather maps became possible after networks of stations were organized to take measurements and report them to some type of central observatory. As early as 1814, U.S. Army Medical Corps personnel were ordered to record weather data at their posts; this activity was subsequently expanded and ...
- weather vane
- (from the article "folk art") ...subject to sophisticated aesthetic treatment have become specific fields of study and collection because of the ingenuity expended upon them-mangles (laundry beaters), molds, decorated eggs, weather vanes, decoys, powder horns, trade signs, scarecrows, and figureheads, to name a few. There are also significant objects categorized according to function; for example, ...
- weather warning
- (from the article "weather forecasting") Weather warnings are a special kind of short-range forecast; the protection of human life is the forecaster's greatest challenge and source of pride. The first national weather forecasting service in the United States (the predecessor of the Weather Bureau) was in fact formed, in 1870, in response to the need ...
- weather watch
- (from the article "weather forecasting") ...observing networks and personnel. If the storms actually develop, specific warnings are issued based on direct observations. This two-step process consists of the tornado or severe thunderstorm watch, which is the forecast prepared by the SELS forecaster, and the warning, which is usually released by a local observing facility. The ...
- weather worship
- (from the article "Anatolian religion") ...had their own names for deities. The result is a bewildering number of divine names, and even when a deity is denoted not by a name but by a logogram (sign or signs standing for a word) to indicate weather god, sun god, moon god, and so forth, it seems ...
- Weatherby rifle
- (from the article "rifle") ...(7.62 mm) and a cartridge case designed to hold 30 grains (2 g) of black powder. Power and performance also depend on the weight and shape of the bullet and its velocity. For instance, a Cal. .257 Weatherby-the name of the inventor of the rifle and the cartridge-is considerably more ...
- weatherfish
- (from the article "weatherfish") any of certain fishes of the loach (q.v.) group.for more general content related to this topicloach
- Weatherford
- city, seat of Parker county, north-central Texas, U.S. It lies some 30 miles (50 km) west of Fort Worth. It originated in 1855 as the county seat and was named for Jefferson Weatherford, a member of the Texas Senate. Indian raids hampered the growth of the city until the 1870s; ...
- weathering
- (from the article "industrial glass") ...atmosphere to produce alkali carbonates and bicarbonates. These are seen as the white deposits that form on a glassy surface in dishwashing tests or after extended humidity exposure (often called weathering). The relative "weatherabilities" of the major oxide glasses are indicated in Table 2. In addition, the weathering resistance of ...
- weathering
- disintegration or alteration of rock in its natural or original position at or near the Earth's surface through physical, chemical, and biological processes induced or modified by wind, water, and climate. [17 Related Articles]
- weathering steel
- (from the article "building construction") ...Formed sheet aluminum is also used for opaque curtain-wall panels. Other metals used in curtain walls are stainless steel (a compound of 82 percent iron and 18 percent chromium) and so-called weathering steel, copper-bearing steel alloys that form an adherent oxide layer. The bronze curtain wall of Mies van der ...
- weathering-limited slope
- (from the article "valley") Two major varieties of hillslopes occur in nature (see figure). On weathering-limited slopes, transport processes are so efficient that debris is removed more quickly than it can be generated by further weathering. Such hillslopes develop a faceted or angular morphology in which an upper free face, or cliff, contributes debris ...
- Weathermaster
- (from the article "building construction") Carrier's "Weathermaster" system was energy-intensive, appropriate to the declining energy costs of the time, and it was adopted for most of the all-glass skyscrapers that followed in the next 25 years. In the 1960s the so-called dual-duct system appeared; both warm and cold air were centrally supplied to every part ...
- Weathermen
- (from the article "Students for a Democratic Society") ...the occupation of university and college administration buildings on campuses across the country. By 1969 the organization had split into several factions, the most notorious of which was the "Weathermen," or "Weather Underground," which employed terrorist tactics in its activities. Other factions turned their attention to the Third World or ...
- weave draft
- (from the article "textile") As musical notation conveys a composer's ideas, so weave drafts or point paper plans communicate a textile designer's directions for constructing woven fabrics. The draft is a plan on graph paper showing at least one repeat or weave unit of the fabric to be woven. This information enables the weaver ...
- weaver
- any of a number of small finchlike birds of the Old World, or any of several related birds that are noted for their nest-building techniques using grass stems and other plant fibres. They are particularly well-known for their roofed nests, which in some African species form complex, hanging woven chambers. ... [1 Related Articles]
- Weaver Navigation Canal
- (from the article "canals and inland waterways") On small canals gates may be manually operated by a lever arm extending over the lock side; on large canals hydraulic, mechanical, or electrical power is used. On the Weaver Navigations Canal in England the hydraulic power for operating the lock gates has been derived for 100 years from the ...
- Weaver, Dennis
- American actor (b. June 4, 1924, Joplin, Mo.-d. Feb. 24, 2006, Ridgway, Colo.), first became famous for his portrayal from 1955 to 1964 of the limping deputy Chester Goode, Marshal Matt Dillon's sidekick, in the long-running television series Gunsmoke, for which he won an Emmy Award in 1959. Among the ...
- Weaver, Drew
- (from the article "Golf") ...Colt Knost, added the U.S. amateur championship to the Public Links title, a double achieved only once before, by Ryan Moore in 2004. The winner of the British amateur crown was another American, Drew Weaver, two months after he was on campus at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) when fellow ...
- Weaver, Earl
- American professional baseball player and manager whose career managerial record of 1,480 wins and 1,060 losses is one of the best in major league history.
- Weaver, George
- (from the article "Black Sox Scandal") ...Cicotte and Claude ("Lefty") Williams, first baseman Charles ("Chick") Gandil, shortstop Charles ("Swede") Risberg, third baseman George ("Buck") Weaver, outfielders Joe ("Shoeless Joe") Jackson and Oscar ("Happy") Felsch, and pinch hitter Fred McMullin. Court records suggest that the eight players received $70,000 to...
- Weaver, Harriet Shaw
- (from the article "Joyce, James") ...short story about a "Mr. Hunter"-his financial difficulties were great. He was helped by a large grant from Edith Rockefeller McCormick and finally by a series of grants from Harriet Shaw Weaver, editor of the Egoist magazine, which by 1930 had amounted to more than £23,000. Her ...
- Weaver, James B
- American politician who leaned toward agrarian radicalism; he twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency, as the Greenback-Labor candidate (1880) and as the Populist candidate (1892). [3 Related Articles]
- Weaver, Jeff
- (from the article "Baseball") ...came back to stun the Detroit Tigers four games to one and capture the 10th World Series title in the franchise's history. The Cardinals clinched with a 4-2 victory in St. Louis on October 27. Jeff Weaver, a former Tiger, pitched eight innings for the Cardinals and allowed one earned ...
- Weaver, John
- dancer, ballet master, choreographer, and theorist known as the father of English pantomime. [4 Related Articles]
- Weaver, River
- river rising on the boundary between the counties of Shropshire and Cheshire, England, and then flowing 45 miles (72 km) north to reach the Irish Sea estuary of the River Mersey to the west of Runcorn. In its upper reaches it passes through dairy farming country, but major industrial development ...
- Weaver, Robert C.
- noted economist who was the first African American to serve in the U.S. cabinet.
- Weaver, Sylvester Laflin, Jr.
- American television executive (b. Dec. 21, 1908, Los Angeles, Calif.-d. March 15, 2002, Santa Barbara, Calif.), revolutionized television programming by shifting the production of shows from the sponsors to the networks, with commercial time then sold to sponsors. He served as president of NBC from 1949 to 1955, during which ... [1 Related Articles]
- Weaver, Warren
- (from the article "communication") ...of a communications system that has been proposed as an answer to Lasswell's question emerged in the late 1940s, largely from the speculations of two American mathematicians, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. The simplicity of their model, its clarity, and its surface generality proved attractive to many students of communication ...
- weaver-finch
- any of numerous songbirds belonging to the family Estrildidae (order Passeriformes), individually called grass finch, mannikin, and waxbill (qq.v.). They are finchlike Old World birds. Most of the 107 species are small or tiny seed-eaters with short conical bills. They occur in flocks in open country and woodland borders in ...
- Weavers, the
- seminal American folksinging group of the late 1940s and '50s. The original members were Lee Hays (b. 1914, Little Rock, Ark., U.S., -d. Aug. 26, 1981, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., ), Ronnie Gilbert (b. c. 1927, New York, N.Y., ), Fred Hellerman (b. May 13, 1927, New York, ), and Pete Seeger ... [1 Related Articles]
- weaving
- production of fabric by interlacing two sets of yarns so that they cross each other, normally at right angles, usually accomplished with a hand- or power-operated loom. [23 Related Articles]
- web
- (from the article "spider") ...especially insects. Some spiders are active hunters that chase and overpower their prey. These typically have a well-developed sense of touch or sight. Other spiders instead weave silk snares, or webs, to capture prey. Webs are instinctively constructed and effectively trap flying insects. Many spiders inject venom into their prey ...
- Web 2.0
- next envisioned iteration of the World Wide Web, in which the 2.0 appellation is used in analogy with common computer software naming conventions to indicate a new, improved version. The term had its origin in the name given to a series of Web conferences, first organized by publisher Tim O'Reilly ... [3 Related Articles]
- Web browser
- (from the article "computer science") The other major approach to client-server communications is via the World Wide Web. Web servers may be accessed over the Internet from almost any hardware platform with client applications known as Web browsers. In this architecture, clients need few capabilities beyond Web browsing (the simplest such clients are known as ...
- web frame
- (from the article "ship") ...shell plating. This scheme of framing is strongly favoured in applications where weight saving is important. However, longitudinal frames require internal transverse support from bulkheads and web frames-the latter being, in effect, partial bulkheads that may extend only three to seven feet in from the shell. This requirement obviously reduces ...
- Web script
- a computer programming language for adding dynamic capabilities to World Wide Web pages. Web pages marked up with HTML (hypertext markup language) or XML (extensible markup language) are largely static documents. Web scripting can add information to a page as a reader uses it or let the reader enter information ...
- Web site
- (from the article "graphic design") ...new area of graphic-design activity mushroomed in the mid-1990s when Internet commerce became a growing sector of the global economy, causing organizations and businesses to scramble to establish Web sites. Designing a Web site involves the layout of screens of information rather than of pages, but approaches to the use ...
- Web-crawling program
- (from the article "computer") Other common Internet software includes Web search engines and "Web-crawling" programs that traverse the Web to gather and classify information. Web-crawling programs are a kind of agent software, a term for programs that carry out routine tasks for a user. They stem from artificial intelligence research and carry out some ...
- web-footed tenrec
- (from the article "tenrec") ...Oryzorictes) are burrowers that will inhabit rice fields. They are similar to American short-tailed shrews and have dark velvety fur, small eyes and ears, and long front claws. The amphibious tenrec (Limnogale mergulus) is the only species in its genus. In addition to its webbed feet, keeled ...
- Webb Alien Land Law
- (from the article "California") ...Francisco, affected domestic and international policies. The Gentlemen's Agreement between Japan and the United States in 1907 halted further Japanese immigration to the United States. In 1913 the Webb Alien Land Law, designed to keep the Japanese from owning land, was the culmination of anti-Japanese lobbying.
- Webb, Beatrice
- (from the article "Webb, Sidney and Beatrice") Beatrice Potter was born in Gloucester, into a class which, to use her own words, "habitually gave orders." She was the eighth daughter of Richard Potter, a businessman, at whose death she inherited a private income of £1,000 a year, and Laurencina Heyworth, daughter of a Liverpool merchant. She grew ...
- Webb, Brandon
- (from the article "Baseball") ...who also led the major leagues with 245 strikeouts and a 2.77 earned run average, secured a unanimous vote for the AL Cy Young Award. Six pitchers won 16 games in the NL, including Cy Young winner Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels led the ...
- Webb, Brant
- (from the article "Australia") All Australia rejoiced in May when miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were rescued after having spent 14 nights trapped in a Tasmanian mine almost a kilometre (more than half a mile) below the surface. The dangerous rescue operation was televised over a two-week period. A third miner was killed ...
- Webb, Chick
- black American jazz drummer who led one of the dominant big bands of the swing era. Its swing, precision, and popularity made it the standard of excellence to which other big bands aspired. [2 Related Articles]
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