This week's Ask A Met question comes from Morning Brief reader Ben who asks, "Are there any reliable ways to predict the weather in the next 24 hours without specialized equipment?"

Meteorologist Tiffany Savona: In my lifetime, we've had computer models, radar data, and satellite imagery that have all improved our ability to predict the weather. But that wasn’t always the case!

This question makes me think back to the 1800s or early 1900s when we didn't have that kind of technology and specialized equipment. There were, of course, people that did try to predict the weather back in the day but it looked very different from how it looks today.

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We all know the thermometer. When the mercury goes up, it gets warmer, and when the mercury goes down, it is, you know, cooler. That doesn’t predict the weather as much as describe it, but that's what we had back in the day.

We have also had barometers for hundreds of years. Some barometers also use mercury, but it measures atmospheric pressure. A rise in pressure means nice, fair, sunny weather is on the way and a rapid drop in pressure indicates that, you know, the weather is going to become more unsettled At sea level, the standard air pressure is 1013.25 mb. Any pressure lower than this means the weather could turn more stormy. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.

A simple weather vane can give you an idea where the air is coming from, which can offer clues when it comes to impacts on temperatures. This obviously depends on the season and what part of the country you’re in.

Say you have a westerly or a southwesterly wind and you live along the east coast in the summer, that's typically gonna mean that you have some drier and warmer air moving in.

If you live along the west coast and you have southwesterly winds coming off of the cooler water, that’s a different story. These winds will bring in more moisture, more clouds, and maybe even some cooler weather.

Beyond that, you have the clouds. Clouds can tell you a lot.

A common one is the cumulus cloud. Many times these puffy white cumulus clouds indicate fair weather, but when you start to get those towering cumulus clouds, that's when a storm is bubbling up. The taller it gets, the more instability in the atmosphere.

If storms start to develop and you notice clouds moving at different speeds and directions, then that can indicate wind shear in the atmosphere. This means there could be some energy to help intensify the storms that develop.

While all of these may be clues to how the weather may generally behave in the short-term, we can't predict any specifics, like timing, severity, or areas that will be impacted. Without satellite imagery, radar data, and computer models, we wouldn't be able to warn people of severe weather hours and days in advance. These advanced warnings save lives. Technology has come a long way and I am here for it.

Do you have a question to ask the meteorologists at Weather.com? Write to us at [email protected] and we’ll pick a new question each week from readers to answer.