Association Forum - Kansas weather is ground zero

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Kansas weather is ground zero

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

pastmember
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

2402 Posts

Initially Posted - 11/18/2009 : 06:42:02

A radar upgrade next year will allow meteorologists to better track severe weather — and Wichita's will be the first National Weather Service office to receive it. The dual polarization radar being developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Norman, Okla., is slated to be installed next fall, NOAA officials said at the quarterly meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Wichita last week. The current Doppler radar, which debuted in 1988, sends out a horizontal beam, said Paul Schlatter of NOAA's Warning Decision Training Branch in Norman. The new radar will send out two: one horizontal and a second at about 45 degrees. The upgraded radars will be installed at the rest of the weather service branches over a two-year period ending in 2012, NOAA officials said.

About a half-dozen dual polarization radars are already in use by television stations and private forecasting companies around the country, said Mike Smith, CEO of the AccuWeather's Weather Data, (located in Wichita).

Frank Hopper

Edited by - on

Rich P
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
77 Posts

Response Posted - 11/18/2009 : 08:31:06

Isn't Kansas considered tornado alley?
First to go up.....and with a good posibility of first to get taken out by a tornado.

Edited by - on

dave holtgrave
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
427 Posts

Response Posted - 11/18/2009 : 10:40:05

yes, did they ever find toto?????
we found some straw last spring!!!!!!!

dave holtgrave
5277 sk/tr
hard and dry near carlyle lake
in southern illinois.

Edited by - on

Harleyworker
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
73 Posts

Response Posted - 11/18/2009 : 13:17:48

Those of us in the Midwest should be able to get some decent weather reporting now, as long as Katie Horner keeps her hands off of it. I think I would rather be in tornado alley than hurricane alley. Are there any websites linked to the new project, it would be nice to get up to date weather right from the source instead of listening to the overpaid, never right, meterologists.

Edited by - on

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5376 Posts

Response Posted - 11/18/2009 : 20:40:40

NOAA's www.weather.gov is the weather website I use exclusively for most of my weather info needs. This is opposed to weather dot com, which is, in my humble opinion, useless. Popups galore and spam. It has only gotten worse since NBC bought it. Now Comcast...... I do like the TV channel's local weather.

On the other hand, NOAA's site pretty much has everything you need. (1) hyper-local reports and predictions down to a 2 mile x 2 mile area, (2) live weather data from reporting stations, (3) several static and moving radar images, (4) combined satellite-radar images of your local area as well as your regional picture, (5) multi-day written weather forecasts and (the best for last), (6) Graphical Forecasts.

If it doesn't already, the Wichita NOAA station will feature info about the new radar technology.

In item 6, NOAA has provided a local or regional map, and if you hover the mouse over a prediction and a time of day, the map will reflect the prediction. For example, if you select tomorrow day at 7am for temperature, the map will show the predicted temp variations all around the area. Same for precip prediction, winds, wind gusts, humidity, wind chill, sky cover, you name it. You hover and the map changes colors.

I love that feature for doing wind predictions as well as feel-like temperature, sky cover and humidity for sailing the next day. While any weather report can be wrong, this NOAA site is usually right.

Sometimes, however, I find that if a certain weather event produces contradictory predictions (will the storm pass well to the south, or will it clip us?), you will get both forecasts in relatively short order.

Still shows that weather prediction, even for 12-18 hours from now, is a chaotic mathematical process with several plausible or probable mutually exclusive outcomes.

You check all the data, you read all the predictions, then you go with your hunch. Like doctoring, weather prediction is by necessity, very personal business. You have to draw your own conclusions.

Edited by - on

Rich P
1st Mate

Members Avatar

USA
77 Posts

Response Posted - 11/18/2009 : 21:52:06

The avaiation section of NOAA can't be beat, but it dosen't go out very far in terms of time and you need to know how to use it.

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 11/22/2009 : 07:00:05

I was just in KC and my wife and I marvel at how Kansas or Missouri are almost always in the news for something - usually horrific or troubling, however... It truly does seem like the center of the universe sometimes.

sten

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.