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.
Good question, Boyd. When we talk about a high pressure ridge and low pressure trough you can think about those like a hill and valley in the atmosphere. Irma is moving around the edge of the mountain (high) since it can't climb it and the computer forecast models are showing a valley (low) to the north of Florida so it will move to flow toward the valley (downhill). Still some very limited chance for changes, stay tuned.
Hi, Reyna. Standard anemometer height is 10 meters.
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!
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.
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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/
Interesting, and pretty broad question. Probably little out of my area. Maybe look to some US government resources like FEMA? Thanks.
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