Chrisrotary12 Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Alright so now that I am working my way through my senior year of college I want to equip myself with a laptop that is ideal for a meteorologist which I am soon to be. I want one that has the power and the memory to run all of the programs and run them in a timely fashion that I need to make myself a useful meteorologists . So this is a two part question really. What should I look for in a laptop for myself?(also if there is a specific one, what is it?) And maybe more importantly, what programs should I install to this laptop? I have a few programs in mind that I would like to put on this laptop, but I would like to know what programs everyone recommends. So please let me know what they are. One thing I definitely want to install is a radar software, but which one does everyone prefer? It is greatly appreciated if anyone, someone, or everyone could give me their input. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Any laptop will do. During a storm I typically have BUFKIT, GR2, Firefox, and Tweetdeck up on my computer. Any laptop you buy today will be more than able to handle those programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Any laptop will do. During a storm I typically have BUFKIT, GR2, Firefox, and Tweetdeck up on my computer. Any laptop you buy today will be more than able to handle those programs. Yeah you don't need a macbook or anything like that. Even if you are low on funds, wunderground radar works great. Plenty of sites have free model data and it seems like better sites are coming out all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Rain Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Yeah you don't need a macbook or anything like that. Even if you are low on funds, wunderground radar works great. Plenty of sites have free model data and it seems like better sites are coming out all the time. Yeah really all you need is something that gives you a solid internet connection with enough ram for lots of loops/animations/etc open at the same time. At work I have 2 dual monitor displays that rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisrotary12 Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 So GR2 is your radar software of choice? And whats a tweetdeck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisrotary12 Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Another question. I tried installing BUFKIT once on my laptop and something went wrong. Is there a simplier way to install the program? And a way to install it so that it will automatically retrieve new data for the stations that I want? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalcottWx Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Another question. I tried installing BUFKIT once on my laptop and something went wrong. Is there a simplier way to install the program? And a way to install it so that it will automatically retrieve new data for the stations that I want? Well.... what went wrong? Regarding updating, do you use bufget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Druff Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Yeah really all you need is something that gives you a solid internet connection with enough ram for lots of loops/animations/etc open at the same time. At work I have 2 dual monitor displays that rock. I will second the suggestion for an external monitor. Having the extra display space will do wonders for your productivity. As for the above suggestion about a Macbook, I've never found a BUFKIT solution that didn't require Parallels/Fusion. I have not tried it through WINE and/or Crossover, does it work there? If a native version exists, will someone please PM me with the location? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapturedNature Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Even if you are low on funds, wunderground radar works great. Plenty of sites have free model data and it seems like better sites are coming out all the time. My apologies if it seems like I'm hijacking this thread but what kind of tools do you guys look for these days with reagrd to the models? Things have changed so much since I went to Met school and I'm trying to get a better understanding of all the different tools that are now used. I'm using my IT skills to build some scripts that can bring this different information together. For example, I have a page that compares GFS runs (with some borrowed code) - http://www.stormmonitoring.com/gfscomp.html - and I'm working on some others. Are there other tools that you use that I could put together that would be helpful in forecasting? To bring this back around....I guess these would be tools that meteorologist could use on a laptop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Having the right links >> having weather software. All you need is a good internet connection... any modern laptop will work fine. I must have around 100 weather links... nowcasting, short-term, medium range and long range forecasting, severe weather, tropics, winter stuff, climo pages, old research links, etc. Multiple monitors do help. I use twisterdata instead of BUFKIT to get the general idea of the wind/temp profiles since it's much quicker to go different locations (especially if you're not familiar with the METAR stations in a certain region). If you want better detail and more customization for a specific location, then BUFKIT is definitely worth the effort, especially since it's free. GR2 or GR3 is a fun tool, but isn't essential unless you need the resolution/products for nowcasting. Wunderground works great in most cases. If you're set on getting radar software, get GR3 unless you really want the full capability of GR2... GR3 is plenty good and it's significantly cheaper. If you find yourself using GR quite a bit, a suggestion might be to consider a feed from AllisonHouse or something. To answer your question, TweetDeck is a Twitter user interface that makes reading and updating Twitter quicker and cleaner. One of the things new meteorologists should take advantage of is social media (Twitter especially) as it has become a main artery for disseminating and collecting weather data of all kinds. Twitter has become the quickest way to get weather forecasts and news updates on the local, regional and national levels all in one place. Most (if not all) government forecasts and advisories get posted to Twitter automatically, and many local and national meteorologists are continually using Twitter. If you follow the right people, Twitter can be quite an effective tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalcottWx Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Having the right links >> having weather software. All you need is a good internet connection... any modern laptop will work fine. I must have around 100 weather links... nowcasting, short-term, medium range and long range forecasting, severe weather, tropics, winter stuff, climo pages, old research links, etc. Multiple monitors do help. I use twisterdata instead of BUFKIT to get the general idea of the wind/temp profiles since it's much quicker to go different locations (especially if you're not familiar with the METAR stations in a certain region). If you want better detail and more customization for a specific location, then BUFKIT is definitely worth the effort, especially since it's free. GR2 or GR3 is a fun tool, but isn't essential unless you need the resolution/products for nowcasting. Wunderground works great in most cases. If you're set on getting radar software, get GR3 unless you really want the full capability of GR2... GR3 is plenty good and it's significantly cheaper. If you find yourself using GR quite a bit, a suggestion might be to consider a feed from AllisonHouse or something. To answer your question, TweetDeck is a Twitter user interface that makes reading and updating Twitter quicker and cleaner. One of the things new meteorologists should take advantage of is social media (Twitter especially) as it has become a main artery for disseminating and collecting weather data of all kinds. Twitter has become the quickest way to get weather forecasts and news updates on the local, regional and national levels all in one place. Most (if not all) government forecasts and advisories get posted to Twitter automatically, and many local and national meteorologists are continually using Twitter. If you follow the right people, Twitter can be quite an effective tool. Is there any way I can snag your bookmarks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Is there any way I can snag your bookmarks? I can put a fairly comprehensive list up later today maybe... other stuff to do today through the weekend, but if I forget just remind me early next week. I've been meaning to make a link page on my blog, anyway, so this would be a good push for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 My apologies if it seems like I'm hijacking this thread but what kind of tools do you guys look for these days with reagrd to the models? Things have changed so much since I went to Met school and I'm trying to get a better understanding of all the different tools that are now used. I'm using my IT skills to build some scripts that can bring this different information together. For example, I have a page that compares GFS runs (with some borrowed code) - http://www.stormmoni...om/gfscomp.html - and I'm working on some others. Are there other tools that you use that I could put together that would be helpful in forecasting? To bring this back around....I guess these would be tools that meteorologist could use on a laptop! Model comparison is good...I like to do that. As far as tools...I guess probability and ensemble forecasting are definitely useful tools to use. http://cms.met.psu.edu/sref/ This site has all sorts of anomaly tracking via ensembles. The way to look at it, is that even if models aren't showing QPF verbatim....if you have PWATs of +3SD above normal and inflow anomalies from the east or south (U or V wind)....chances are, someone is getting a ton of rain. I'm just giving one example here. Models are a tool...I guess instead of looking at the basic things like 850 temps, QPF, etc...you should look into the variables a little deeper. For example, say you are shown to have 0.25" QPF in an upcoming storm. You look at a model sounding. You are saturated up through 300mb and have a nice veering look to the winds. Well chances are..you may be getting more than 2.5" of snow. Look at other things like where the mid level lows are...things like that to help verify your thoughts on this potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisrotary12 Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 I can put a fairly comprehensive list up later today maybe... other stuff to do today through the weekend, but if I forget just remind me early next week. I've been meaning to make a link page on my blog, anyway, so this would be a good push for that If you find the time to post your links that would be greatly appreciated. I have been trying to compile my own list but being so new to the ball game it is kinda small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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