Inaugural speech prof. Bas van de Wiel - The Nighttime Weather: a piece of cake?

Our daily weather has always intrigued many of us. From day to day we experience how the continuously changing weather patterns affect our ongoing activities and plans. On a sunny moment we may decide to go for a nice walk in the park, while a few hours later after a heavy thunderstorm we have to repair our roof. In any case, we like to stay informed about the upcoming weather, be it via social media, television news or other information channels. Although we are familiar with weather phenomena that occur during the day, most of us will not have realized that ‘night-time’ weather can be as fascinating and relevant as its day time counterpart. With half the globe covered with nocturnal weather conditions, our current understanding of its physics is surprisingly poor. This strongly affects our ability to forecast nighttime weather, particularly in Arctic and winter regions. With respect to our daily life, this ‘cold-weather research’ has direct relevance for the prediction of fog and frost events. Accurate and timely prediction of those phenomena is of importance for traffic safety, but also for example to predict night-frost in agriculture. In the inaugural lecture, a basic explanation for the physics of the nighttime atmosphere is given, followed by a view on scientific perspectives and challenges in this interesting and relevant field of meteorology. 

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