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Good riddance 2012. Rockin 2013? Obs and Banter


Bob Chill

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Honestly I never knew until today about that 50% required probability with watches. And I've been following weather for 11 years now.

I've never seen it before either. Seems pretty high at least compared to severe weather. Tho obviously the coverage is usually different so maybe not 1 to 1.

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I've never seen it before either. Seems pretty high at least compared to severe weather. Tho obviously the coverage is usually different so maybe not 1 to 1.

 

I vaguely remembered the 50% figure but didn't know that it was still used or is even used uniformly across the country.  Jason got the number from John Strong who certainly should know.  The problem is no one in the general public knows what probability is needed for a watch to be issued and I suspect many forecasters issue watches at a lower probability than that.  Watches need to be more specific about what they actually mean. 

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Very good points Wes. I'm certainly in favor for at a minimum of some probabilistic forecast info in addition to the deterministic output. The challenge for us is to convey such info that can be easily understood by the public.

I am going to help you out here. I will provide your forecasts for the next few years or decades:

 

Seasonal: Warm and wet or cold and dry. If it is precipitating, the temperature is above freezing. If it is dry, it might be "cold" (i.e., at most 25 degrees at night)--  check your local thermometer for details.

 

Daily: take NAM and add a few degrees while reducing QPF by 75%.

 

Done.

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yep. i noted it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/washington-dc-in-longest-drought-without-a-2-inch-or-greater-snowfall-event/2013/01/03/38c6a4c0-548b-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_blog.html

i didn't do the history there as it would have taken a long time.. but it's gotta be the longest stretch there as well as it's now longer than any of the prior dc ones and balt has at least a bit better climo.

Nice research and article, Ian. I'll be throwing those stats at people until it snows again. Also, good discussion by all regarding NWS. Nothing to add other than theirs is not an easy job.

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Add another bust to the pile

 

Three amazing things about today:

 

1)  Models missed by 10 degrees from two days out w/o the complicating factor of clouds/precip. 

 

2) This weekend turned out to be much nicer than last weekend with 850 temps 10-15 C lower

 

3)  Our positive departure today may be just about the same magnitude as the negative departures Tues/Wed

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Three amazing things about today:

1) Models missed by 10 degrees from two days out w/o the complicating factor of clouds/precip.

2) This weekend turned out to be much nicer than last weekend with 850 temps 10-15 C lower

3) Our positive departure today may be just about the same magnitude as the negative departures Tues/Wed

On 1... You mean today was supposed to be cloudy?
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