Q 01/05

Which philosopher wrote the oldest comprehensive treatise on meteorology, around 340 BC?

A) Plato

B) Ptolemy

C) Thales

D) Aristotle

Answer · why

D) Aristotle

Aristotle's Meteorologica, written about 340 BC, runs to four books, three on weather and the heavens and one on what we would now call chemistry; the...

Q 02/05

Who proposed the cloud-naming system of cumulus, stratus and cirrus in 1802?

A) Francis Beaufort

B) Luke Howard

C) John Dalton

D) Robert FitzRoy

Answer · why

B) Luke Howard

Luke Howard, a Quaker manufacturing chemist, presented the Latin cloud names to London's Askesian Society in December 1802; Goethe later wrote verses ...

Q 03/05

The Beaufort wind scale was devised in 1805 by a hydrographer serving which country's fleet?

A) Britain

B) The United States

C) France

D) The Netherlands

Answer · why

A) Britain

Britain's Royal Navy was Francis Beaufort's service: commanding HMS Woolwich in 1805 he set down 13 wind classes, from 'just sufficient to give steera...

Q 04/05

A Saffir-Simpson Category 5 hurricane has sustained winds of at least what speed?

A) 111 mph

B) 130 mph

C) 157 mph

D) 145 mph

Answer · why

C) 157 mph

157 mph or more marks Category 5 since the 2012 revision of the scale, which Herbert Saffir drafted around 1969 and Robert Simpson extended at the Nat...

Q 05/05

The Enhanced Fujita scale rates tornadoes on how many intensity categories?

A) Six (0 to 5)

B) Five (1 to 5)

C) Seven (0 to 6)

D) Ten (1 to 10)

Answer · why

A) Six (0 to 5)

Six (0 to 5) is the count: EF0 to EF5, rated from damage surveyed after the tornado, so wind speeds are estimates; the US adopted it in 2007 and Canad...