I've been a broadcast meteorologist on television since the early 1990's. Happy to answer any questions about the weather or local TV news. Yes, I often wear sneakers on set just out of view of the camera.
Great question, Richard! Each storm and location is a little different. Much of the precipitation type is determined above the surface of the earth. The snowflakes form thousands of feet above the ground and stay frozen as they fall. A very shallow layer of air at the surface could be above freezing but not deep enough to melt the snow.
Great question, Judith. I must say I'm not really familiar with SF climatology. In general air pressure changes with the movement of weather systems so a short move might not have a big effect. But local topography could come into play. I'll suggest your local National Weather Service office would find your question interesting. Good luck! Contact info at the bottom. http://www.weather.gov/mtr/
Yes. But some would disagree.
Great question. A cold air event, like the current one, is a good bit less complicated than rain or snow. With a precipitation forecast there are more factors at play. In general a forecast gets fuzzier the further out it time you go. Broadly speaking the forecast starts with data gathered from weather balloons launched twice a day from about 900 sites around the world. That sounds like a big number but when you consider the size of the earth, and how much of it is covered by water, which is hard to launch a balloon from, that data is pretty sparse. The goal of the balloons is to take a snapshot of the atmosphere at a given moment. It is a fuzzy picture. Think of putting that fuzzy picture on a copy machine. The copy is fuzzier, then make a copy of a copy and so on. So the further out in time the more errors or changes that enter the forecast. Stay warm!
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I usually answer this questions like this. I really don't like the use of the word "normal" in weather. "Average" is better. Over simplified, if the "normal temperature for this date is 75 degrees and we look a the records for the last 100 years. In theory half of those years the temperature could have been 50 degrees and half 100 degrees. The "normal" is 75 but it was never 75. So, there are swings in the global weather patterns constantly you're at one end of the swing! Hope that makes sense.
Yup. Sure can. Cold air moving into an area, cold air advection, can drop the temperature. And something called evaporative cooling can happen when it is raining. The friction with the air caused by falling raindrops can transfer heat to the water vapor and cool the air as well. Great question!
There is a lot of that out there these days, especially on social media. I’m pretty lucky, doesn’t happen too often. Busted snow forecasts seem to be the worst. I’m in Texas so not as big a problem. Thanks!
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