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326 Questions

Last Answer on December 24, 2019

Hello. My boss has asked me to find out the amount of snowfall in a 5 day span in January 2016. Any idea on how can I get this info?

Asked by Erin over 7 years ago

Hi, Erin. I’d go to weather.gov (not .com). Click on your area of the map and it will take you to the local National Weather Service office and you’ll see phone and email on the bottom. Good luck.

752 Votes

It seems to me that cold outbreaks can be predicted well in advance and are almost always accurate (sadly). This is in contrast to rain and snow. What is it that makes their prediction so reliable?

Asked by docjmcg2 over 6 years ago

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!

752 Votes

Hello! So I read an article about the Amazon being in fire. I was wondering if there was a way to take the numbers from how much Co2 is increasing & oxygen being take away & measure the effects elsewhere from wind patterns, temperature changes, etc.

Asked by Desmond about 6 years ago

Interesting question. A little out of my area as a local meteorologist. You might have some luck looking around the website for National Center for Atmospheric Research. https://ncar.ucar.edu/

752 Votes

can the temp. drop if its raining

Asked by darrell8675309 over 7 years ago

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!

752 Votes

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On the East Coast, specifically the Allegheny mountains, are the prevailing winds necessarily from the west? Which is to ask: Is the leeward size of those mountains generally on the east, or rather on the west, as the Atlantic ocean is so close?

Asked by Mrs. Mills over 6 years ago

Hello, Mrs. Mills. Broadly speaking the leeward side of the Allegheny Mountains would be the eastern side, closer to the coast. At any given moment the windward side of anything is that facing the wind. In general terms the broad atmospheric flow is west to east across the United States. Here is a good definition on Wikipedia. Thanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windward_and_leeward

750 Votes

How many weather models does a forecaster have to work with and where is the data for the weather models coming from?

Asked by Richard Ferstandig over 7 years ago

Complicated answer, Richard, but a good question. There are quite a few and I really can't give a number off the top of my head. Easily more than a dozen It is complicated because different models offer different solutions. Some are short range, some are longer range. Some are US based, others European and Canada and Japan. To further complicate the issue some models are run as "ensembles" meaning they are run from the basic initial data but small variations are introduced to give different solutions. The basic input data is collected twice a day from about 900 upper air sites, or weather balloons, launched twice a day, noon and midnight Greenwich mean time. The idea is to take a snapshot of the entire planet atmosphere at the same time. Also, more and more data, from satellites and radar for example, is now ingested into the models to varying degrees. A shorter answer is, on a regular day I'll look at three or four.

749 Votes

Is Hurricane Irma only considered a hurricane at the eye, or center, of the storm and beyond that only a tropical storm? So, for example, hurricane Harvey didn't hit Houston, a tropical storm did?

Asked by Kim Harris about 8 years ago

Hi, Kim. Nope. The maximum sustained winds of any part of the storm (mostly likely near the eye) determine the designation of the entire storm. Harvey hit peak strength at Category 4 as it came ashore near Rockport, TX and the center never did cross Houston.

749 Votes

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TV Meteorologist

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Hello. My boss has asked me to find out the amount of snowfall in a 5 day span in January 2016. Any idea on how can I get this info?

It seems to me that cold outbreaks can be predicted well in advance and are almost always accurate (sadly). This is in contrast to rain and snow. What is it that makes their prediction so reliable?

Hello! So I read an article about the Amazon being in fire. I was wondering if there was a way to take the numbers from how much Co2 is increasing & oxygen being take away & measure the effects elsewhere from wind patterns, temperature changes, etc.

can the temp. drop if its raining

Also on Jobstr...

On the East Coast, specifically the Allegheny mountains, are the prevailing winds necessarily from the west? Which is to ask: Is the leeward size of those mountains generally on the east, or rather on the west, as the Atlantic ocean is so close?

How many weather models does a forecaster have to work with and where is the data for the weather models coming from?

Is Hurricane Irma only considered a hurricane at the eye, or center, of the storm and beyond that only a tropical storm? So, for example, hurricane Harvey didn't hit Houston, a tropical storm did?

TV Meteorologist

Ask me anything!

What do YOU do?

Hello. My boss has asked me to find out the amount of snowfall in a 5 day span in January 2016. Any idea on how can I get this info?

It seems to me that cold outbreaks can be predicted well in advance and are almost always accurate (sadly). This is in contrast to rain and snow. What is it that makes their prediction so reliable?

Hello! So I read an article about the Amazon being in fire. I was wondering if there was a way to take the numbers from how much Co2 is increasing & oxygen being take away & measure the effects elsewhere from wind patterns, temperature changes, etc.

can the temp. drop if its raining

Also on Jobstr...

On the East Coast, specifically the Allegheny mountains, are the prevailing winds necessarily from the west? Which is to ask: Is the leeward size of those mountains generally on the east, or rather on the west, as the Atlantic ocean is so close?

How many weather models does a forecaster have to work with and where is the data for the weather models coming from?

Is Hurricane Irma only considered a hurricane at the eye, or center, of the storm and beyond that only a tropical storm? So, for example, hurricane Harvey didn't hit Houston, a tropical storm did?

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