FORTUNE smiled on Warwick at the weekend as the weather stayed fine and temperatures were comfortable.

Saturday was fine with some patchy cloud around and one rogue shower running along the range at sunset.

Light winds blew from the south-east before tending northeast during the evening. Temperatures ranged from 14c to 29c.

Sunday was fine and clear until later in the afternoon when there was some development near the ranges.

A couple of showers and storms tried to fire up, but never led to anything. Winds were light from the east for most of the day and temperatures ranged from an overnight low of 15c to a high of 29c.

Forecast

THIS week may be the one we have been waiting for. I do not want to get hopes up, but there is a chance of significant rainfall throughout the region this week.

A vigorous upper-level trough should enter the state and ahead of this trough a series of associated surface troughs should develop across most of southern Queensland.

A new high will enter the bight and generate a ridge along the coast, but this time it will allow moisture to be pushed into our region.

This activity should generate storms and rain across the region for most of the week.

Today will see the upper trough in the west push slightly to the east and the associated surface trough will generate more instability across the Downs.

Moist air will be pushed in by stormy upper-level northerly winds to feed the instability and this should deliver some good rainfall to areas that need it. Once again, the Eastern Downs should see some rain or storms from mid-afternoon.

Winds should be light to moderate from the northeast tending east at times and it will be mostly overcast with some breaks in the cloud during the day. Temps 16c to 26c

Tomorrow should be overcast and rainy as the high in the Tasman start to drift east and this will allow the Upper and associated surface low to intensify and draw humid, moist air in from the northeast. This will generate showers and storms across the region and some significant falls can be expected.

Winds should be light to moderate from the east for most of the day. Temps 17c to 24c

Thursday should see the upper and surface trough move east and generate storms and rain for eastern parts of the Darling Downs and Granite Belt.

Most of the activity should contract offshore during the evening. Winds will be light to moderate from the south-east tending east at times and it will be mostly cloudy all day. Temps 16c to 23c

Friday may see the surface trough hang around for a bit to generate some showers during the morning and into early afternoon before clearing to the east during the evening.

It should be overcast for most of the day with light to moderate easterly winds. Temps 17c to 25c

The weekend at this stage, may mean that Saturday has a good chance of showers and Sunday may see a shower in the morning with temperatures around the mid-twenties for both days.

While most of us have a passing interest in the weather and its effects, has anyone ever wondered what causes it and what are the factors involved?

Wind, rain, clouds and snow are all the result of one thing - the sun! Heat generated by the sun hits the earth in the form of solar wind and heats our planet.

Because the earth is a sphere the winds wrap around the atmosphere and heat at different ranges.

The same heating - or rather uneven heating - generates convection and it causes the air around us to move (wind).

This movement distributes heat across the globe to heat some areas while cooling others, thus we have high temperatures in one area and low temperatures in other areas.

The high and low-pressure systems we see, the wind, clouds, and rain systems we see, are all a direct or indirect result of this uneven heating.

There are two main ways heat is distributed around the Earth, vertical and horizontal transport.

Vertical transport: as the sun heats the surface it makes the atmosphere unstable and this causes the vertical updrafts and downdrafts associated with rain, clouds and thunderstorms.

Horizontal transport: Because the Earth is round, more heat hits the Equator then the poles and this temperature difference will, in turn cause pressure differences to develop.

This will generate upper atmospheric winds that will draw the heat from the tropics toward the poles.

Together, these two directions of heat transport generate what we know as weather.

There are many other factors involved in the generation of our amazing weather patterns including the geography of our planet and the effect of the Earth spinning know as the Coriolis Effect, but without heat from the sun none of the weather events we witness would happen and that would make for a boring place to live.