This book introduces the methods of synoptic climatology (the spatial analysis of climates) and shows its vital importance in the understanding of environmental systems. It is both a technical primer for environmental scientists and a text in applied climatology for students of atmospheric science and geography. The book is constructed round five environmental scenarios to illustrate the application of synoptic climatological methods: these are tropospheric ozone concentration; surface wind flows; regional hydrology; local hydrology; and wet sulphate deposition (acid rain). For each scenario, five sets of analytical methods are applied: subjective map interpretation, correlation-based map classification, eigenvector-based map classification, subjective circulation indices, and air mass-based synoptic climatologies.