Backyard Meteorology: The Science of Weather

While this course is interesting and touches all the important topics, it really lacks in depth. Being taught by a physicist, I was expecting that the underlying processes will be explained in terms of scientific laws which govern gases, and matter in general. The first part (Week 1) delivers well towards this promise, but the rest of the course simply doesn't.

Parts 2, 3, and 4 makes a big jump and lists out a whole bunch of titles from your 8th grade geography textbook, and then goes on to give a brief overview about each. I was often left with a whole bunch of questions and wondered why Professor Huth assumed that a student will be able to make these connections by herself.

Since the course is titled "Backyard Meteorology", I hoped to gain somewhat of a practical knack at observing and understanding the local weather. At the end of the course, I can identify clouds and name them, but that's pretty much it.

To be fair to the creators, the science of weather is complex, and there are a lot of factors at play all at once, and to attempt to teach all of this in a 4 week MOOC would be a futile exercise.

True understanding can however come if you carry on your day-to-day observations, develop hypothesis, and does research on things you are curious about.

This course is a good kickstart. But that's all it is.