To predict the projectile trajectory from a kinetic weapon it is necessary to take into account gravity, air resistance and the wind. When using a laser important factors are instead particles in the atmosphere and refractive index variations. This report gives a popular science description of the effects of different atmospheric phenomena on some military applications of lasers. The report consists of a number of articles grouped in categories with hyperlinks in between. The report contains only a few simple mathematical formulas, with most descriptions of effects of different weather phenomena being purely qualitative.