Weather

Cambridge IGCSE Geography 0460 · Theme 2 The natural environment Syllabus: 2025 and 2026 Official syllabus reference: 2.4

This topic is examined up to and including the November 2026 series only. It does not appear in the 2027 syllabus. The 2027, 2028 and 2029 version of 0460 removes the settlement, water and weather topics entirely. If you are sitting 0460 in 2027 or later, close this page. Nothing on it can be asked of you. If you are sitting the June 2026 or November 2026 series, this topic is fully live and it is worth a lot of marks, because it turns up on all three written components.

Weather is unlike every other topic in 0460. There is no case study, there is no "evaluate", and there is almost no essay. What there is instead is a set of instruments, and the mark schemes are extremely specific about what earns credit for each one. Learning the instruments loosely will cost you marks that learning them precisely would have given you for free.

1. What the syllabus actually asks for

Topic 2.4 is short. The whole of it, in the left hand column of the syllabus, is three statements.

Candidates should be able to:

• Describe how weather data are collected
• Make calculations using information from weather instruments
• Use and interpret graphs and other diagrams showing weather and climate data

Further guidance:

• Describe and explain the characteristics, siting and use made of a Stevenson Screen
• Rain gauge, maximum-minimum thermometer, wet-and-dry bulb thermometer (hygrometer), sunshine recorder, barometer, anemometer and wind vane, along with simple digital instruments which can be used for weather observations; observations of types and amounts of cloud

That is the complete scope. Three things are worth noticing straight away.

There are no numbered sub-points. Unlike the 2027 syllabus, the 2025 and 2026 document does not number individual content statements. There is no "2.4.1". Questions are set against the topic as a whole, so you cannot revise a subset of it and hope the rest is not examined.

There is no case study required for 2.4. The syllabus prints "Case Study required" boxes under 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 2.3, 2.5 and elsewhere. Under 2.4 there is nothing. This has a direct consequence for how the topic is examined, covered in section 2.

The list of instruments is exhaustive. The syllabus states that content lists are exhaustive except where the word "including" is used. The instrument list in 2.4 does not use "including", so those seven traditional instruments plus simple digital instruments plus cloud observation are the whole examinable set. Nothing else can be required by name.

What is not in 2.4. Weather processes belong elsewhere. Relief and convectional rainfall, the equatorial and hot desert climates, and the factors influencing them, are all in 2.5, not 2.4. Tropical storms are in 2.2. Do not spend revision time on climate causes under this heading, but do learn them under theirs, because of what section 2 explains.

2. Where 2.4 appears in the papers, and how it is worth marks

Of the 154 questions in the 0460 bank that test this topic across the 2020 to 2024 series, the split by component is:

Weather is therefore a Paper 4 topic first and a Paper 1 topic second. Most candidates revise it as a Paper 1 topic only, and lose the Paper 4 marks, which are the more predictable ones.

The Paper 1 pattern, and what it means for you

On Paper 1 the weather question is always a Theme 2 question, and it always follows the same shape:

That is 18 marks of weather and then 7 marks of something else. In every one of the thirteen Paper 1 weather questions in the bank, part (c) is drawn from a different topic, because 2.4 has no case study of its own. Eight of the thirteen asked for a named river and flooding, three asked for the climate of a hot desert or an equatorial area, one asked about hot desert vegetation and one about the impacts of a tropical storm.

The practical consequence: if you revise weather and nothing else, you can score 18 out of 25 on that question and then lose all 7 remaining marks. Revise 2.2 river flooding and 2.5 climate alongside 2.4, because the paper puts them in the same question.

Where the named example cap does and does not apply

The mark scheme note "Max 5 if no named or inappropriate example" is printed on 161 of the 3,467 questions in the 0460 bank. It appears on none of the 154 weather questions. It cannot be applied to a 2.4 question, because 2.4 has no case study.

It does appear on the 7 mark part (c) that sits immediately after the weather question on Paper 1. So the cap is one part away from you, not on you. Name your river or your desert in part (c), even though you did not need to name anything in parts (a) and (b).

3. The Stevenson Screen

The Stevenson Screen is a white, louvred wooden box on legs which houses the thermometers and other instruments that must be kept out of direct sunlight, rain and wind while still being surrounded by freely moving air. It is the single most examined object in the topic: it appears in more 0460 weather mark schemes than any instrument.

The features, and the explanation that earns the mark

Mark schemes for this are structured as description plus explanation, and they are explicit that an explanation with no valid description scores nothing. Learn them as pairs.

1. the box is raised on legs
2. the thermometers sit well clear of the ground surface
3. heat radiated from the ground does not reach them
4. the reading is the temperature of the free air, not of the soil.

On the height, be careful. Different papers print different figures for the same box: 1.25 m in one, 120 cm in another, "more than 1 m" in a third, "more than 1 to 1.5 m" in a fourth, "one metre long legs" in a fifth. One mark scheme instructs examiners to ignore references to height altogether and credit only "above or off the ground". The safe answer is "on legs, about 1.25 m above the ground", and the mark is really being given for the reason, not the number. If the question prints a height, use the printed one.

Siting a Stevenson Screen

Siting is a separate question type and it carries 3 or 5 marks. The mark schemes want paired points: where, and why. A location on its own is a partial answer.

Marks note: one Paper 2 mark scheme explicitly credits "so temperature is measured accurately" as a standalone explanation point. That is a rare gift. Normally examiners want the mechanism, not the outcome.

What goes inside, and what goes outside

This distinction is tested repeatedly, and it catches candidates out because Cambridge's answer differs from what many textbooks say.

Inside the Stevenson Screen

• Maximum-minimum thermometer (Six's thermometer)
• Wet-and-dry bulb thermometer (hygrometer)
• Barometer

Outside the Stevenson Screen

• Rain gauge
• Anemometer
• Wind vane
• Sunshine recorder

Exam trap: the barometer is inside. Four separate 0460 mark schemes, in November 2023, November 2024 twice and June 2022, list the barometer among the instruments kept in a Stevenson Screen. Textbooks often show barometers on an indoor wall and candidates therefore leave them off the list. For 0460, barometer goes inside.

Exam trap: the rain gauge is outside for an obvious reason, but candidates who have learned "thermometers go in the screen" sometimes place the hygrometer outside because it has "humidity" in the name. It is a pair of thermometers. It goes inside.

4. The instruments, one at a time

Each instrument is examined in three ways: name it, explain how it is used, and say where it should be sited. Learn all three for all seven. The tables below are built from what 0460 mark schemes actually credit.

Maximum-minimum thermometer (Six's thermometer)

Measures: the highest and lowest air temperature reached since it was last reset, in degrees centigrade.

How it is used, in the order the mark scheme lists it:

• Keep it inside a Stevenson Screen.
• Read it every 24 hours, at the same time each day, or over a fixed time period.
• The instrument is a U shaped tube containing alcohol in one limb and mercury below, with a small metal index or marker floating in each arm.
• Read the minimum temperature from the base of the marker on the left hand side, and the maximum from the base of the marker on the right hand side. In general, read from the bottom of the index.
• Read at eye level, to avoid misreading the scale.
• Reset the markers afterwards, by sliding them back down with a magnet or by pressing the reset button.

Calculations it feeds: the diurnal range or daily range of temperature is maximum minus minimum. One November 2024 paper asked for the diurnal range at Karachi and the answer was 14 °C. A November 2021 Paper 2 question asked for present, maximum and minimum temperature separately from the same instrument, so be ready to read three values off one diagram.

Exam trap: "read the top of the marker" is wrong. The credited answer is the base of the index, because that is the point the liquid column reached.

Wet-and-dry bulb thermometer (hygrometer)

Measures: relative humidity, indirectly. Relative humidity is the amount of moisture in the air expressed as a percentage of the total moisture the air could hold at that temperature. That definition is printed as the correct option in at least two multiple choice mark schemes, so reproduce it word for word.

Why it works:

1. water evaporates from the wet muslin around the wet bulb
2. evaporation removes latent heat
3. the wet bulb reads lower than the dry bulb
4. the drier the air, the faster evaporation, so the larger the difference
5. the size of that difference tells you the relative humidity.

How it is used, and this is the sequence mark schemes credit point by point:

1. Keep it inside a Stevenson Screen and observe at set times each day.
2. Read the temperature on both thermometers, the wet bulb and the dry bulb.
3. Work out the difference between them. This is the wet bulb depression, calculated as dry bulb temperature minus wet bulb temperature.
4. Use a relative humidity table.
5. Read off the value where the dry bulb temperature intersects the wet bulb depression on the table. That is the relative humidity as a percentage.

Steps 3, 4 and 5 are separate marks. Candidates who write "use a hygrometer and read off the humidity" score one mark out of four.

Marks note, and it is a strange one. A February 2022 Paper 4 mark scheme for a four mark version of this question prints "NOT: ref to Stevenson Screen", because the question stem had already told candidates the instrument was in one. A November 2020 Paper 4 mark scheme for the same technique explicitly credits "Put it in Stevenson Screen". Read the stem. If it has already placed the instrument, do not spend a point placing it again.

A worked calculation. A November 2024 Paper 1 question gave a dry bulb reading of 30 °C and a wet bulb reading of 27 °C and a printed relative humidity table. The working was 30 minus 27 equals 3 °C, which was one mark, and reading 77 % off the table was the second. Show the subtraction. The mark scheme states that the calculation mark stands as long as the subtraction is correct, because the table lookup depends on it.

Rain gauge

Measures: precipitation, in millimetres.

Parts to label on a diagram: the funnel, the collecting jar or measuring jar, the outer casing, and a scale with graduations. A Paper 4 question awarding four marks for a labelled diagram gives a maximum of one mark for the drawing itself and three for the labels, so a beautiful unlabelled sketch scores one. A pluviometer is accepted as an alternative, labelled with scale, container and stand.

How it is used:

• Stand the gauge firmly, part buried or dug into the ground, with the rim or lip kept above ground level.
• Place the funnel and collecting jar inside the outer casing.
• Rain enters through the funnel and collects in the jar.
• Pour the collected water into a measuring cylinder.
• Read the scale, in millimetres, at eye level.
• Take the reading every day at the same time, or over a stated fixed period of 24 hours.
• Empty the cylinder and jar after measuring.
• In cold conditions, melt any snow or ice caught in the funnel before measuring.
• Record the reading in a table or chart.

Where to site it: away from trees, away from buildings, in an open unsheltered area, on grass rather than concrete, on flat level ground, clear of people and animals or fenced off, and somewhere accessible so it can be read and emptied daily.

Why each siting point matters, because "give three factors" is followed by "explain why":

• Away from trees, so leaves do not intercept the rain and so water does not drip from the canopy into the funnel.
• Away from buildings, so nothing shelters the gauge and stops rain falling in.
• Buried with only the lip above ground, so rain does not splash up off the surrounding ground into the gauge.
• Fenced or clear of animals, so it is not knocked over or emptied.

1. the gauge is sunk into the ground with only the lip proud
2. raindrops striking the surrounding grass cannot splash into the funnel
3. the collected volume is only the rain that fell directly into the gauge
4. the reading is accurate.

Exam trap, and this one is genuinely contradictory in the papers. A February 2022 Paper 4 mark scheme prints "NOT On roof" for rain gauge siting. A June 2024 Paper 4 mark scheme lists "On roof" as creditworthy. Do not use the roof. The four safe points, credited in every version, are open ground, on grass, away from trees and away from buildings.

Barometer

Measures: atmospheric pressure, in millibars (mb).

A barograph, which is a barometer with a rotating drum and pen that draws a continuous trace, is accepted as an alternative answer.

Where it goes: inside the Stevenson Screen. See section 3.

Readings you will be asked for: one November 2020 Paper 1 question printed a barometer dial and required the answer 992 mb. Read to the nearest millibar and always give the unit. Typical values sit between about 960 mb and 1040 mb, and 1013 mb is standard sea level pressure.

Why pressure matters in this topic: the two Paper 4 hypotheses the syllabus suggests for 2.4 both involve pressure or wind, and pressure is used because it correlates with rainfall.

1. atmospheric pressure falls
2. air is rising rather than sinking
3. rising air cools and its water vapour condenses
4. cloud forms and thickens
5. rainfall totals are higher on low pressure days.

Anemometer

Measures: wind speed.

How it works, and the mark scheme wants both halves:

• The cups, disks or wings spin or rotate as the wind pushes them.
• A meter, dial, screen or scale counts the number of revolutions and converts it into a wind speed.

Units credited: km/h, mph, m/s or knots.

How it is used: hold it in the air or mount it on a roof, do it away from buildings and obstructions in an open area, and read the meter every 24 hours or at a fixed time each day.

Where to site it: high up, on a roof, on top of a pole or at the top of a hill; away from trees and buildings; in an open space; ideally in a fenced or secure area. The reason for all of it is the same: nothing must block, slow, channel or disrupt the wind before it reaches the cups.

Exam trap: a June 2022 mark scheme explicitly rejects "throw grass in the air" and "windsock" as methods of measuring wind speed. A windsock shows direction and rough strength, not a measured speed.

Wind vane

Measures: wind direction, specifically the direction the wind is blowing from.

How it is used:

• The arrow or pointer turns, spins or is pushed round by the wind until it stops.
• It points to a compass direction, marked by the fixed letters N, E, S and W below it.
• That direction is the one the wind is coming from.

Where to site it: on a roof, on top of a pole, high up, higher than the surrounding buildings and features, away from trees, in an open space, so nothing blocks or deflects the wind and the vane catches maximum wind strength.

Exam trap, and it is the commonest single error in the topic. A wind vane gives the direction the wind blows from, not the direction it blows towards. A "northerly wind" comes from the north. One June 2024 Paper 2 mark scheme accepted either "(from the) south" or "to the north" for the same diagram, but that leniency is not guaranteed. Write "from".

Prevailing wind is the direction the wind most often blows from over a period. On a wind rose it is the longest arm.

Sunshine recorder

Measures: hours of bright sunshine per day.

Cambridge accepts sunshine recorder, Campbell-Stokes recorder, heliograph and pyranometer as names for it.

How it is used:

• Site it facing south in the northern hemisphere, or facing north in the southern hemisphere, so it faces the arc of the sun.
• Put it in an open space, outside, exposed to the sun's rays, on top of a building, a pedestal or a stand, where it will not be shaded.
• Make sure a card, paper or sheet is fitted inside the instrument.
• The glass sphere focuses the sun's rays, which scorch or burn a line into the card.
• Measure the length of the burn line and convert it into hours, using the printed time scale on the card.
• Record every 24 hours, at the same time each day, or at sunset.
• Remove and replace the card each day with a fresh one.

A February 2024 Paper 2 question printed a scorched card and required the reading "12 hours".

Exam trap: a February 2024 mark scheme scores "gets lots of sunlight" and "no human contact" at zero. They are too vague. Say "so it receives the direct rays of the sun from all directions" and "away from buildings, obstructions and trees".

Digital instruments and automated weather stations

The syllabus names "simple digital instruments which can be used for weather observations", and Cambridge examines them mainly through comparison questions worth 3 or 4 marks. A digital thermo-hygrometer, for instance, displays temperature and relative humidity on one screen.

Advantages of digital over traditional, all credited in 0460 mark schemes:

• Gives instant readings, so it is quicker and saves time.
• More accurate and precise, giving exact figures, sometimes to several decimal places.
• Easy and clear to read, with a large digital readout, so no skill is needed to read a scale.
• Less chance of error or misreading.
• Records automatically and continuously, so no one has to be present and no dates are missed.
• Links to a computer, so data can be logged, stored and graphed instantly.
• Portable in some cases, so one instrument can be used at several sites.
• Instruments stay in position, are more durable and are less likely to be broken.

Disadvantages of traditional instruments are the same list turned round: slow, no instant reading, less accurate, harder to read, more chance of misreading, cannot be linked to a computer.

Exam trap, and there is a real inconsistency between papers here. A February 2022 Paper 4 mark scheme lists as not creditworthy: "avoids parallax error", "more reliable", "measures continuously", "cheaper", "no need to reset". Yet a June 2021 Paper 4 mark scheme does credit "continuous recording of data" and "does not need resetting". A March 2023 Paper 1 mark scheme calls "not portable", "bulky", "done manually", "needs training", "difficult to use" and "not reliable" too vague, and gives no credit at all for "they can get broken".

The four points that are credited in every version, and therefore the four to write, are: instant or quick readings, greater accuracy or precision, easier and clearer to read, and can be logged or stored on a computer. Do not write "more reliable" and do not write "cheaper".

5. The three question shapes, and how to answer each

Almost every 2.4 question is one of three shapes. Recognising which one you have is worth more than extra content.

Shape 1: "Explain how instrument X is used"

Worth 2 to 5 marks. The examiner wants a sequence of separate actions, one mark each. Write it as numbered steps. A complete answer includes: where the instrument is placed, what physically happens to it, what you look at, what you calculate or convert, how often and when you read it, and what you do afterwards such as resetting or emptying.

The commonest failure is writing one sentence containing the whole method. "You put the rain gauge outside and check how much water is in it" contains two marks' worth of material in a form that reads as one point.

Shape 2: "Describe and explain the ideal location for instrument X"

Worth 2 to 5 marks. Mark schemes for this repeatedly print "Reserve 1 mark for description/explanation", meaning you cannot score full marks with only locations or only reasons. Pair them:

• "On a roof or the top of a pole, so that it is higher than surrounding buildings and nothing blocks the wind."
• "On grass and away from buildings, so that heat given off by walls and tarmac does not raise the temperature recorded."

One March 2023 mark scheme flags "above building" and "high up" as too vague on their own. Add what they are above and why.

Shape 3: "Describe the pattern shown in the data"

Worth 3 to 5 marks, on Paper 1 (b)(i) or Paper 2. Two variants, and the instruction is printed in the question:

• "Do not use statistics" means write direction and timing only. "Temperature falls from midnight to 07:00, then rises to 14:00." Quoting a number here wastes words but does not usually cost a mark.
• "Use statistics in your answer" means at least one mark is reserved for figures, and an answer without any is capped.

For a comparison, every point must mention both things being compared. "August to November has higher rainfall" scores. "It rains a lot in November" does not, because it is not comparative. One November 2022 mark scheme prints "Note: comparison needed" beside every credited point.

Look for and state: the overall trend, the range or variation, and the exception. Mark schemes routinely credit "both fluctuate", "with exceptions", and then a named exception such as "for example 10 August".

6. Clouds: type and amount

Amount of cloud

Cloud cover is measured in oktas, meaning eighths of the sky. Eight oktas is completely overcast, zero oktas is a clear sky.

How it is measured, and this is a 3 to 5 mark question:

• By observation, by eye, looking straight up at the sky, or by photographing it.
• Estimate the number of eighths of the sky covered by cloud.
• Use a transparent grid divided into sections placed over the view or a photograph, and count the covered squares, to make the estimate less subjective.
• Satellite images can also be used.
• Repeat every day, at the same time of day, or at set times, or several times per day.
• Record in a chart, table or diary.
• To compare two periods, total the number of days with each cloud type and work out averages for cloud cover, then present as pie charts, divided rectangles or bar graphs.

Types of cloud

The syllabus asks for "observations of types and amounts of cloud" and does not name the types. The mark schemes do. These are the ones 0460 has used:

Identification method credited in mark schemes: identify the type using a book, diagram, identification chart, printed pictures or the internet, by considering the cloud's vertical extent, shape and colour.

Exam trap: one November 2023 mark scheme prints "Not strato". The word is stratus. "Strato" is a prefix, not a cloud name, and it is not accepted.

Cumulonimbus formation, the one process question in this topic

A June 2023 Paper 1 question worth 5 marks asked candidates to describe the processes producing the daily cumulonimbus clouds and heavy rainfall of equatorial areas. This is really 2.5 content reached through a 2.4 cloud question, which is exactly why sections 2.4 and 2.5 should be revised together.

1. the overhead sun heats the earth's surface and its water
2. evaporation and transpiration load the air with water vapour
3. the heated air rises in strong convection currents
4. it cools as it rises
5. the vapour condenses into water droplets and cloud builds upwards
6. the cloud reaches saturation and can hold no more water
7. heavy convectional rainfall falls, typically in the afternoon.

Each arrow in that chain is a separate mark. Eight steps, five marks, so you have room to lose a couple.

7. Calculations

The syllabus statement is "make calculations using information from weather instruments". Every calculation 0460 has actually set is one of these five.

Always write the unit. °C, mm, mb, oktas, km/h, %. Marks are lost for bare numbers on questions that state the unit is required.

Show your working. The relative humidity question printed a box for working and awarded one of its two marks for the subtraction alone. A wrong table lookup with a correct subtraction still scores one.

8. Graphs and diagrams for weather data

The third syllabus statement is "use and interpret graphs and other diagrams showing weather and climate data". The syllabus's own list of graph types for Paper 2 includes wind rose graphs, radial graphs, scatter graphs including best-fit lines, line graphs, bar graphs and histograms. Weather questions use all of them.

Wind rose

A wind rose, also accepted as a radial diagram, shows the frequency of wind from each compass direction, with the length of each arm giving the number of days or the percentage of the time, and coloured bands within each arm giving wind speed categories.

To read one: the longest arm is the prevailing wind direction. The number of days from a given direction is read off the concentric scale rings. Where speed bands are coloured, you can compare not only how often the wind blew from a direction but how strong it was.

A November 2023 Paper 2 question required a comparison of the south-south-west and north arms and reserved one mark for statistics, wanting answers such as "10 % from SSW against below 6 % from the north" and "winds of 11 to 16 m/s occur from the SSW but are not present from the north".

Scatter graphs and best-fit lines

Used for the pressure and rainfall relationship. A best-fit line is credited when it is drawn as a single straight or gently curved line with roughly equal numbers of points above and below it, running in the direction of the relationship. For pressure against rainfall the line runs from top left to bottom right, at roughly 45 degrees, because the relationship is negative.

Plotting

Paper 4 awards single marks for plotting one value onto a prepared graph. Plot the point precisely, extend the line to it if the graph is a line graph, and ignore shading, which is not credited. Read the axis scale before you plot: one mark scheme specifies a plot at 10.3 km/h landing at 5.15 to 5.2 cm height on the printed axis.

9. Paper 4 fieldwork

The syllabus lists two suggested coursework hypotheses against topic 2.4:

• Is there a relationship between the amount of rainfall and the wind direction in the local area?
• Is there a relationship between atmospheric pressure and the amount of rainfall in your local area?

Both have been set almost word for word on real Paper 4s, in June 2021 and November 2023. A third recurring investigation is the school microclimate study, comparing temperature and wind speed at several sites around a campus.

Primary and secondary data

• Primary data is collected by the student directly, first hand, from their own fieldwork.
• Secondary data already exists and is obtained from another source: books, the internet, or an automated weather station belonging to someone else.

Both halves of that contrast are separate marks.

Method points that earn credit in every fieldwork question

• Take readings at the same time of day each time, to remove the variable of time of day and to make readings comparable. A February 2022 mark scheme specifically refuses "to increase accuracy", "to be fair", "to get an average" and "to be reliable" as the reason. The credited reason is comparability, because temperature changes through the day.
• Take readings over a fixed period, usually every 24 hours or at set intervals such as every three hours.
• Record in a table or chart as you go.
• Use the same instrument at every site.

Writing a hypothesis conclusion

This is where the marks are, and the mark schemes are strict about the shape of the answer.

1. State the verdict first. True, false, or partly true. One mark is reserved for it and it is a specific verdict, not a hedge. Several mark schemes award zero for the wrong verdict and then still credit the evidence, so an answer with the wrong verdict but good data can still score.
2. Give a statement of the pattern. "Wind speed is higher when the wind blows from the east."
3. Give paired data from both sides of the comparison. Most mark schemes want four figures, or two difference figures, and one mark is reserved specifically for the data. "Highest wind speed is 29 km/h from the east and 19 km/h from the west."
4. If the hypothesis is partly true, say what supports it and what contradicts it. Mark schemes for partly true conclusions require a "BUT" structure: "highest temperatures at sites 3 and 4 near the building, BUT site 5 away from the building was also high at 18.7 °C."

1. read the data table
2. state the verdict in the first sentence
3. give the general pattern in the second
4. quote paired figures from both ends of the comparison in the third
5. name the exception in the fourth.

Do not write "the hypothesis is generally true" or "partially true" when the mark scheme wants "true". One November 2023 mark scheme awards zero for "false, partly or generally true" on a hypothesis it considers true. Commit to one of the three verdicts on the evidence.

10. Common exam mistakes

• Writing that a wind vane shows the direction the wind is blowing towards. It shows where the wind is coming from.
• Leaving the barometer out of the list of instruments kept in a Stevenson Screen. For 0460 it goes inside.
• Reading a maximum-minimum thermometer from the top of the index instead of the base.
• Writing "use a hygrometer to find the humidity" as a whole answer. The marks are in the depression, the table and the intersection.
• Drawing a rain gauge with no labels. The diagram is one mark and the labels are three.
• Giving locations without reasons, or reasons without locations, on a "describe and explain the ideal location" question. One mark is reserved for each.
• Writing "high up" or "above buildings" on its own. Mark schemes call this too vague.
• Answering a "do not use statistics" question with statistics, or a "use statistics" question without them.
• Making a non-comparative statement on a comparison question. Both places must appear in the sentence.
• Claiming digital instruments are "more reliable" or "cheaper". Both are explicitly refused.
• Saying "on a roof" for a rain gauge. One mark scheme refuses it outright.
• Writing "strato" for stratus.
• Measuring cloud cover in percentages. The unit is oktas, eighths.
• Suggesting throwing grass in the air, or a windsock, to measure wind speed. Refused.
• Hedging a hypothesis conclusion. Pick true, false or partly true, and support it with four figures.
• Ignoring part (c) of the Paper 1 question, which is 7 marks of river flooding, hot desert or equatorial climate and carries the named example cap.

11. Quick revision

• Stevenson Screen: white to reflect heat, wood so it does not conduct heat, slats so air circulates, double roof to insulate, legs about 1.25 m so it measures air not ground temperature, door for access and protection.
• Screen siting: open ground, away from buildings and trees, on grass, level, fenced, door facing away from the sun.
• Inside the screen: max-min thermometer, wet-and-dry bulb thermometer, barometer. Outside: rain gauge, anemometer, wind vane, sunshine recorder.
• Max-min thermometer: alcohol and mercury, read the base of the index, minimum on the left, maximum on the right, reset with a magnet, read at eye level.
• Hygrometer: read both bulbs → subtract to get the depression → relative humidity table → read the intersection.
• Rain gauge: funnel, jar, outer casing, scale. Dig it in, lip above ground, pour into a measuring cylinder, read in mm at eye level, empty it, same time each day.
• Barometer: millibars, inside the screen, barograph accepted.
• Anemometer: cups spin, meter counts revolutions, km/h or m/s, sited high and clear.
• Wind vane: arrow turns and points to the direction the wind comes from, sited high and clear.
• Sunshine recorder: faces south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern, sun's rays scorch a card, measure the burn line, replace the card daily.
• Digital: instant, accurate, easy to read, logs to a computer. Not "reliable", not "cheaper".
• Cloud amount: oktas, eighths, estimated by eye or with a transparent grid, at the same time daily.
• Cloud types: cirrus high wispy no rain, altostratus middle layered, stratus low grey drizzle, cumulus low fluffy showers, cumulonimbus towering with heavy rain.
• Diurnal range: maximum minus minimum, in °C.
• Wind rose: longest arm is the prevailing wind.
• Hypothesis conclusion: verdict, pattern, four figures, exception.
• Named example cap: does not apply to any 2.4 question. It does apply to the 7 mark part (c) beside it.

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