Weather
Mars' temperature and circulation vary from year to year (as expected for any planet with an atmosphere). Mars lacks an ocean, a source of much inter-annual variation on earth. Mars Orbiter Camera data beginning in March 1999 and covering 2.5 Martian years shows that Martian weather tends to be more repeatable and hence more predictable than that of Earth. If an event occurs at a particular time of year in one year, the available data (sparse as it is) indicates that it is fairly likely to repeat the next year at nearly the same location give or take a week.
On September 29, 2008, the Phoenix lander took pictures of snow falling from clouds 4.5 km above its landing site near Heimdall crater. The precipitation vaporized before reaching the ground, a phenomenon called virga.
Read more about this topic: Climate Of Mars
Famous quotes containing the word weather:
“Is it possible
That any may find
Within one heart so diverse mind,
To change or turn as weather and wind?
Is it possible?”
—Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542)
“The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 16:1-3.
“The weather is like the government, always in the wrong.”
—Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927)