How you'll study

You'll benefit from an impressive range of world-class facilities, equipment and resources, providing a relevant and incredibly useful practical dimension to your studies.

With guidance from our expert technicians and academic staff, you will develop an exceptional knowledge and understanding of how to use these tools.

• Our on-campus atmospheric observatory is equipped with a huge range of meteorological instruments, allowing you to study things such as energy balance and the small-scale turbulent fluctuations in winds, temperature and humidity that transport heat, moisture and momentum between the surface and the atmosphere.
• Our fluid dynamics laboratory allows you to study the effects of heating, rotation and density gradients on the behaviour of fluid flows, with direct analogues to real weather systems.
• See first-hand how a wide range of meteorological instruments are built and tested in our specialised instruments lab.
• The University's TV studio facilities provide the opportunity to practise producing and presenting your own weather broadcasts.
• With special dispensation from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, we are able to launch radiosondes from our campus to take atmospheric measurements. You can get involved with this, and may even be able to use the recorded measurements in your own work.
• Build your programming skills using Python and develop highly transferable skills in data processing, plotting and analysis.

You'll have the opportunity to gain valuable fieldwork experience during your course. It's a great way to apply what you learn in the classroom and labs to real-world scenarios and work collaboratively in a team.

The skills you develop during field-work exercises will help you in your own project work, and are highly sought-after by employers.

Final year field trip

During your final year you will have the option of attending a summer field study trip. In recent years, students have gone to the Isle of Arran and the Lake District, but the location of the field class is subject to change.

Past field trips have provided excellent bases to take meteorological measurements – measuring energy fluxes, launching and tracking weather balloons, and preparing and delivering local weather forecasts to staff and fellow students.

On these trips you will also develop strong team-working skills and learn a wide range of analytical skills, such as how to read specialist charts and process data from state-of-the-art equipment.

We've been making meteorological observations at the University of Reading for over 100 years, and today our data contributes to official UK Met Office statistics.

You'll have access to a rich source of World Meteorological Organization standard measurements through our range of datasets, enabling you to use accurate, real-time information in your work.

Explore our weather data

Find out more about our Atmospheric Observatory

We offer the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge scientific research projects, sometimes in collaboration with industrial partners, which tackle real problems posed by industry.

You'll join an established research group comprising academics, students and independent researchers. These groups meet regularly, providing you with support, feedback and opportunities to participate in discussions and give talks.

You'll have the opportunity to undertake a professional placement as part of your degree, supported by a dedicated placements officer.

Placements offer an exciting opportunity to enhance your work-related skills and develop a network of contacts, as well as strengthening your employment prospects.

Recent examples of placement providers include:

• The Met Office
• WeatherNet
• MeteoGroup
• EDF Trading.

You can opt to do a placement during a vacation period, such as over the summer, or in between your second and final year by choosing one of our courses with a built-in placement year.

Our dedicated placements team will support you to identify and contact a company, or government organisation, working in your chosen scientific area.

Work shadowing

In your first year, you can benefit from our work shadowing programme. This is when you trial a placement for one day, observing either a placement student or a recent graduate at work.

This experience gives you an insight into the type of skills and personal attributes that are required for a specific role and organisation, and will help prepare you for applying for a placement in the future.

Our MMet Meteorology and Climate with a Year in Oklahoma course provides the opportunity to advance your studies and gain new perspectives by studying at one of the leading schools of meteorology in the United States.

Situated in the heart of Tornado Alley, the University of Oklahoma is home to the US National Weather Center, and you'll get to sit in with the forecasters based there.

"I was fortunate enough to spend a year in Oklahoma, USA, which is an experience I cannot recommend highly enough in terms of the opportunity to travel, learn from experts at the university there, and experience types of weather rarely seen in the UK."

Dan Gardner, MMet Meteorology with a Year in Oklahoma

By studying meteorology and climate at Reading you'll join a supportive and collaborative international community of students, staff and alumni.

With our excellent staff-to-student ratio, we are able to take a personalised approach to your educational development. There are plenty of opportunities to learn independently, but you will also benefit from the in-depth academic discussion made possible by small class sizes.