MetLink is the flagship education portal of the Royal Meteorological Society

We provide teachers, students, meteorologists and the general public with information about teaching weather and climate, teacher development, climate change and accreditation.

On this site you will find teaching materials including powerpoint presentations and lesson plans, information about becoming a meteorologist, how to obtain chartered status and many more things. 

You will also find general information for teaching weather, curriculum links, information about school and junior membership and how to book a "Meteorology Ambassador" to come and talk to your class

NB: This website replaced the data collection site ‘MetLink’ which existed under this domain name previously on the 1st March 2010. Unfortunately data and images can no longer be uploaded to the MetLink site. However, archived data and images can be found on this website under Teachers/archived data and images.

By Alice, our work experience student

• The recent Icelandic volcano eruption halted British airspace for 24 hours. This was the first time in history Britain has been a total no fly zone. Public air travel had not been disrupted like this since WWII. If the ash was to get into the engine of a plane, it would melt and become sticky, causing the blades to jam and the engine to overheat.
• Even though the ash cloud was only seen in North West Europe, it affected people all over the world. Industries were unable to export goods to Britain and parts of Europe bringing trade to a halt. Kenya for example lost $12m in flower exports as the flowers had already been cut ready to be shipped, so died.
• The volcano released two gases which are harmful to the environment: sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. If sulphur dioxide gets to a high enough altitude in the stratosphere, it can partially reflect the sun which makes the Earth’s surface slightly cooler. This is counterbalanced by the carbon dioxide, which traps heat therefore warming the Earth.
• The Ejafjallajokull volcano in Iceland was formed because Iceland is on a constructive plate boundary. This means the Eurasian plate and the North American plate are moving away from each other, so magma is coming out of the gap in between. When this magma cools, it forms a hard rock, creating new fertile land.
• Along with the magma, volcanic ash is produced. This can be magma that has cooled into solid glass particles, rock from the side of the volcano or crystals.
• The more explosive the volcano is, the more ash produced. The Ejafjallajokull volcano produced 140 million cubic metres of ash and around 80 million cubic metres of magma.
• The ash cloud reached around 9km (30,000ft) into the sky, the same height at which aeroplanes maintain cruising altitude.
• The eruption measured 4 on the Volcanic Explosion Index. Each unit on the index increases 10 times more than the last, so VEI 4 means around 100m cubed of ash per minute was produced on average.
• 500 families were evacuated from the area of Ejafjallajokull
• The ash cloud reached Europe because the jet stream was unusually unstable at the time. If the jet stream had been more stable, the cloud would not have reached mainland Europe.
• Lightning could be seen inside the plume. This is because of the friction between ash particles. They became statically charged, creating lightning.
• Magma was sprayed into the air up to 3km high.
• The lava melted the glacier north of the volcano, causing a slight rise in water levels.
• The ash causes breathing problems and heavy ash deposits on buildings can cause them to collapse due to massive pressure on the structure.
• The magma flowed at 300 cubic metres per second from the crater

Alice was the lateset work experience visitor to the Royal Meteorological Society - This is her diary

Day 1

Today after much anitcipation I eventually arrived at the RMetS headquarters in Reading after going down various side roads with a rather confused taxi driver. I did not expect the Society to be the grand building it was. It outshone all the other buildings on the street by miles. It was small but beautiful with columns surrounding the number 10 style door. I rang the doorbell and was greeted by a smiling Sue Brown. She welcomed me in and I stepped into the hallway with golden chandeliers suspended from the celiling. I was then introduced to Racheal Fordham and Georgina Lea, who I would be working with for most of the week. We went up to the newly renovated meeting room to discuss my itinary for the week.Rachael gave me a tour of the society and showed me some of the various departments: communications, ICT, publishing and administration. It was interesting to see how each of the departments work closely alongside each other to help the smooth running of the organization. We worked particularly closely with the ICT department as all of the computers bar my laptop were malfunctioning today! Georgina then showed me how the BBC forecasts weather and the different ways weather information can be displayed. We looked at the weekly outlook and Georgina explained that, although the forecast was partially true, the BBC would make rather a big deal it if it was raining or snowing as those are the types of weather people are more interested in. This meant even if was only raning for an hour overnight, there would still be a rain symbol for that day. We also looked at the pollen count as we both suffer from hayfever! I also noted that the general outlook doesn’t tell you when the rain will be or for how long.

I was shown the pressure charts from the Met Office website and how to interpret them. Although they looked confusing at first I soon discovered what all those wiggly lines meant and I was able to give a rough forecast for the day judging on where the fronts were and what the pressure was. This way you can tell more specifically when and where it will rain. After I was shown how to do a forecast, Rachael and I went into town to have some lunch and enjoy the sunny weather I was going to be writing about in my article. We discussed the recent weather and the heatwave we have been having at the moment. I was asked to write an article for the MetLink website on how the heatwave had affected people across the country such as strawberry farmers, festival goers and of course Wimbledon tennis players. I did some research and found some very interesting statistics on strawberry sales and Wimbledon weather history. I even discovered there was an Ice Cream Alliance! After pulling together some intersting figures from various web pages, I wrote about how the British public had been affected by the weather. Naturally, there were lots of articles as we Brits love to talk about the weather! After I finished my article, I started work on my diary for the day which was rather full as I had an exciting first day. Everyone was really friendly to me and I look forward to day number two.

Day Three

Today I had a busy day at the Royal Meteorological Society. I arrived in style in Mum’s secretary’s convertible which refreshed me for the day ahead. I continued work on my piece about the Icelandic volcano and how it affected not only Iceland, but Europe too and even places as far as Kenya had lost out because trade had come to a halt. Liz and I took a look at the forecast for the weekend ready for the two Sue’s camping trips. I found it useful because I’m going camping too! It looks like Saturday will be the best day but Sunday looks set to be windy with heavy showers! There is a second cold front due to approach us bring warm weather just before the rain. I was then introduced to Sue Brown who is Paul’s secretary. As well as being Paul’s secretary she is in charge of organizing the conferences for different members of the society. She explained to me that there was a student conference and a main conference for the fellow members of the society. The fellows are the most important members in the society and they must be approved by the council as Althea had explained. There was an important student conference coming up and she needed help with making their badges. So I set to work with the guillotine cutting up 90 timetables ready to be put into badges for the guests. I eventually got the hang of it but had to stop as I left at 11am to go into town and have my makeup professionally done for my prom at John Lewis’ Bobbi Brown counter! I again arrived at the office in style ready to have my picture taken for the RMetS website.

After I’d had my picture taken, I was asked to draw a competition winner from a hat. Liz and Rachael had been running a survey to find out more about the type of people interested in the Weather Club. The results gave us an idea of a target audience so we could design the material accordingly. It was interesting to see the results of the survey were not as Liz predicted; we have a wider spread of demographics than thought which is great for the society as it brings diversity. There was a chance to win a silver plated weather station with a barometer, thermometer and clock all in one. After picking out a winner and matching it with an e-mail (congratulations weather.man!) we e-mailed them to send their prize on the way. Liz then showed me designs for signage for the Weather Club. I was interested to find out that by law all companies must have a plaque at their registered address, so Liz showed me designs for new brass signs. There was one for the Weather Club and one for Weather & Climate Ltd. As RMetS and the Weather Club are charities, a business was set up so they could trade commercially and profitably unlike charities. After another busy day at RMetS, I left with great excitement, partly for prom and partly for the day ahead of me. What a shame tomorrow will be my last day.