What is climatology?
In simple words, climatology is a scientific study of climate. Climatology is also defined as a quantitative description of climate specifying characteristic values of climate variables over a region. Climatology considers past and potential climate changes.
If to go deep into details about the study of climatology it will logical to ask the next question regarding the climate. What is climate as a subject of climatological study? Climate is the statistical collection of weather conditions at a place over a period of years. 30 years are the shortest period of time taken for consideration.
Climatology should not be mixed with meteorology although they are interdependent studies. In the broad meaning climatology is a subdivision of meteorology. Meteorology studies short term weather systems lasting up to a few weeks whereas climatology the frequency with which these weather systems occurs. Meteorology deals with the physics of the atmosphere. It considers the various atmospheric phenomena (for example cloud formation, rainfall and thunder). While climatology is interested in atmospheric phenomena average occurrence over years to millennia at any place, as well as changes in long-term average weather patterns, in relation to atmospheric conditions. Climatology may almost be defined as geographical meteorology.
Climatology has also close relations with chemistry, ecology, geology, geophysics, glaciology, hydrology, oceanography, and volcanology.
Who are pioneers of climatology? Edmund Halley was one of the first researchers. He published a map of the trade winds in 1686 after a voyage to the southern hemisphere southern. The weather map as we know it today was first published by Francis Galton in 1863. Galton also invented the term anticyclone. Other famous names of climatologists include Wladimir Koppen, Milutin Milankovic, and Hubert Lamb.
What is the practical use of climatology? Its main object is to be of practical service to man. Its method of treatment lays most emphasis on the elements which are most important to life. Climate and crops, climate and industry, climate and health, are subjects of vital interest to man. Climatologists, those who practice climatology, study both the nature of climates - local, regional or global - and the natural or human-induced factors that cause climates to change.
Many years ago it was discovered that climate influences on health. Climate has been used as a treatment for some diseases. Climate is one of the essential parts of health resorts.
The most important qualities of the atmosphere in relation to health are the chemical composition, the solids floating in it, the mean and extreme temperatures, the degree of humidity, the diathermancy, the intensity of light, the electrical conditions, the density and pressure, and the prevailing winds. Different individuals react both to heat and cold very differently. At health resorts, where the temperature may vary between 55 and