Roger Edwards Comments

Roger wrote: 

Hear, hear. This has been not just a pet peeve of mine, but a problem in operational meteorology, for a long time. "Energy" has no meaning. The similarly used "dynamics" doesn't either. The chart being showed presumably involves vorticity. If "vorticity" is too big a word for the public--and I understand that--then don't show that chart to begin with. Instead show something else, such as temperature or wind, that is more conceptually comprehensible and isn't perceived as dense meteorological jargon.

From a recent BLOG esssay of mine:

BAD WORDING: “Energy” in the context of perturbations or the instability they may cause, such as upper-level energy approaching.

REASONING: Same as with “dynamics”, but worse. Energy, in many forms, is everywhere in the atmosphere! As such, this word is meaningless.

BETTER ALTERNATIVE(S): As with “dynamics”, this depends on the specific situation. Just state the actual feature or process involved. A more-informed reader is…a more-informed reader!
His complete blog post presents a lengthy list of sloppy/poor terminology he has seen in NWS FDs and can be found at:

http://stormeyes.org/wp/2014/05/toward-more-accurate-forecast-discussions/

I took a look at some more FDs yesterday afternoon and found several discussions throwing around the "energy" term. Interestingly, I found an FD from Boulder/Denver that used the term "moisture wave," as well as "energy." 

Apparently the use of "energy" terminology is becoming fairly common within the NWS. I just took a look at the FD from one of National Centers and found:

EXTENDED FORECAST DISCUSSION

NWS WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER COLLEGE PARK MD

1057 AM EST SUN NOV 23 2014

VALID 12Z WED NOV 26 2014 - 12Z SUN NOV 30 2014

THE PASSAGE OF TIME IS DOING REMARKABLY LITTLE TO RESOLVE THE AREA OF SIGNIFICANT SPREAD THAT GUIDANCE HAS PERSISTENTLY BEEN SHOWING

OVER THE NWRN CONUS/SWRN CANADA AS OF EARLY DAY 3 WED WITH DOWNSTREAM IMPACTS ON THE 

MID LVL ENERGY/SFC SYSTEM TRACKING INTO

THE GRTLKS AND SYSTEM THAT MAY TRACK NEAR THE EAST COAST EARLY IN ……

…..RECENT TRENDS TOWARD A BETTER DEFINED REXBLOCK PATTERN IN THE ERN PAC DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE PERIOD LEAD TO A SLOWER TREND

WITH THE EVENTUAL PROGRESSION OF ERN PAC 

TROUGH ENERGY TOWARD THE WEST COAST BY NEXT WEEKEND IN RESPONSE TO UPSTREAM PAC FLOW.......

Unfortunately, so it goes.