Random Weather Grumbles

Have some grumbles about weather products I've examined today.


1 - Arizona Daily Star and KVOA weather page in this morning's Sunday paper. The chance of rain is given in the paper as 0% for both Tuesday and Wednesday. Shown above is the NAM forecast of 48-hour rainfall amounts for the 48-hours ending at 5 pm Wednesday afternoon. Hmmm, somebody is not coordinated here. There is a statement on the Star weather page that: Forecasts and graphics, with the exception of KVOA[sic], provided by AccuWeather.com. I don't know what exactly that statement means. It could be that everything on the Sunday Star weather page is from AccuWeather, except for the photo of Matt Brode and the Channel 4 logo. What I do know for sure is that the forecast for rain during midweek did not suddenly pop into the NWS forecasts this morning after the newspaper had gone to press last night!


2 - From the 1:45 am Sunday morning (31 Jan 2010) Tucson NWS Forecast discussion: SOME ENERGY ROTATING AROUND THE SRN PERIPHERY OF THE MAIN LOW OFF
THE COAST OF THE PACIFIC NW WILL SWING THROUGH NRN BAJA. Hmmm, I don't know what exactly this statement means and "energy" is not defined in the NWS glossary for the general reader. The use of this kind of loose terminology in technical discussions is one of my pet peeves. Perhaps the writer was referring to some kinetic energy? But I think not - I suspect that this is jargon for - a local maxima of cyclonic vorticity at 500 mb. Or perhaps??


3 - From the 2:35 pm Sunday afternoon (31 Jan 2010) Tucson NWS Forecast discussion: SHORT WAVE RIDGING WILL BE TRANSITIONING ACROSS THE STATE IN ADVANCE OF NEXT PACIFIC STORM. Again, it's not very clear what this statement means precisely. Meteorologically, "ridging" usually means the building or strengthening of a ridge at some level in the atmosphere. Transitioning is used here, I am fairly certain, to mean - moving over or translating across the state.

Again, just a couple of my pet peeves about imprecise technical writing.

The upside is that it again appears that we'll have some weather to watch during the coming week!