what do barometer readings mean?

Answer 1

Low Barometer reading means the weather is falling, or turning cooler and stormy, higher readings means fair weather, sunny and clear, no storms.

Answer 2

What Barometer Readings Mean

Answer 3

Air has weight.The weight or force exerted on unit area of a surface is termed as the pressure.
The pressure of the atmosphere at any level is thus defined as the weight of the overlying column of air over unit area at that level.According to this definition,the atmospheric pressure changes with height i.e.it increases as we go downward and decreases as we move upward.
The instrument used for measuring the pressure of atmosphere at any level is called the barometer.In a barometer which is of the mercury type,the weight of a column of mercury is made to balance the pressure of the atmosphere over a mercury trough.
So the barometer reading gives the station level pressure of a particular place.The value is usually reduced(corrected ) to mean sea level for comparison purposes.

Answer 4

It is an indication of the weight of the atmosphere that is above that location.

A single reading does not mean much. Weather observations from around the world are taken at the same time and reduced to a common level (sea level pressure) and when plotted and analyzed, will show the pressure patterns around the world.

50 years ago, the information was sent via teletype and hand plotted and hand analyzed by humans. It took two to three hours to plot and analyze a quarter of a hemisphere map.

Now we do the same thing in a few seconds with the click of a mouse.

Answer 5

A barometer measures air pressure. Lower pressure usually
means rainy weather and reduced visibility while higher
pressure usually means good weather and good visibility.
The standard for comparison is 29.92 in. of mercury and 59F.
The reported pressure is usually corrected for surface elev-
ation differences so the weather can be compared at a
glance over a large area.