What are Weather Circles?

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What are Weather Circles?

Synoptic charts often have symbols describing the weather conditions at different locations. A weather circle provides five pieces of information about the weather in a place:

temperature
precipitation
wind speed
wind direction
cloud coverage

Weather circles present data collected from various sources, including weather stations, aeroplanes, balloons, and satellites.

The image below shows the characteristics of a weather station circle.

A weather station circle

Below is a key to show the weather station symbols.

Weather circle key

Summary

A weather circle on a synoptic chart conveys five key aspects of weather at a specific location: temperature, precipitation, wind speed, wind direction, and cloud coverage.
Information within weather circles is gathered from a variety of sources, including weather stations, aeroplanes, balloons, and satellites.