The Role Of Water

In the last post, "The Hydrologic Cycle", I explained how water works in our weather. Water is a necessary component of weather for life to survive and thrive. But can we have weather without water? That's a good question. Let's consider the Planet Mars.

Check out this video from the Spirit Rover on Mars. The Martian atmosphere doesn't have any water in it and yet there is wind (as evidenced by this dust devil). So the answer is, water is only a necessary component of weather for life to survive, but not necessary for weather itself! The Sun heats the atmosphere, the planets revolve around the Sun and spin on their axis, which creates weather. Water on planet Earth makes weather much different than it is on Mars, but there is still weather on Mars!