Here are a few interesting web sites worth
checking once in a while :
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/mm5rt
where you can visualize by yourself some of the maps we use in class, for our weather discussions. MM5 is a model run here at the University of Washington, in our Department of Atmospheric Sciences. If you go to the bottom of that page and click on "Submit that selection", you will obtain the most recent sea surface pressure map over the West coast and the eastern Pacific (isobars at sea level and temperatures in color).
http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/ua_nhem_300.html
where you can see the whereabouts of the jet stream, at 300 mb, which is close to the tropopause.
And of course, last but not least, our department's webpage !!!
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/data/
where you can jump to all sorts of maps, radar images, satellite pictures, weather forecast, etc.
Confused about what all the things on the station reports look like? Look at this explanation for a station model:
http://weather.cod.edu/notes/stnmodel.html
You should also have a look at some of these sites for more information about current research on El Nino, Climate Change, etc.
El Nino/Southern Oscillation:
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/home.html
Environmental News at UNEP:
http://www.unep.ch/conventions/
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC):
http://www.unep.ch/
Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group:
http://tao.atmos.washington.edu/PNWimpacts/
Ozone and Montreal Protocol:
http://www.unep.ch/ozone/index-en.shtml
Report on those who commonly skip atmos 101 lecture:
http://www.DarwinAwards.com
Reports to the Nation: El Nino and Climate
Prediction:
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/gcg/RTN/index.html
Program on the Environment:
http://depts.washington.edu/poeweb/
Department of Ecology air quality site:
http://airr.ecy.wa.gov/Public/databypol.html
Have fun !