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UFSP 100 Weather Forecasting Ross A. Lazear. Why is forecasting the weather so difficult? Imagine a rotating sphere 8,000 miles in diameter -Has a bumpy.

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Presentation on theme: "UFSP 100 Weather Forecasting Ross A. Lazear. Why is forecasting the weather so difficult? Imagine a rotating sphere 8,000 miles in diameter -Has a bumpy."— Presentation transcript:

1 UFSP 100 Weather Forecasting Ross A. Lazear

2 Why is forecasting the weather so difficult? Imagine a rotating sphere 8,000 miles in diameter -Has a bumpy surface -Surrounded by 40-km deep mixture of different gases whose concentrations vary both spatially and over time -Heated, along with its gases, by a nuclear reactor 93,000,000 miles away Sphere is revolving around the nuclear reactor -Some locations are heated more during one part of the revolution than others Mixture of gases receives inputs from the surface below -Generally calmly; sometimes violently!

3 Why is forecasting the weather so difficult?

4 .....Now, imagine that after observing this gaseous mixture, you are expected to predict its state at multiple locations on the sphere one, two, or more days into the future. This is essentially the task encountered every day by a weather forecaster! Adapted from Ryan, 1982, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

5 Why the discrepancy? Forecasting is often extremely challenging! There are *many* forecasts made available to the public… *National Weather Service *The Weather Channel *AccuWeather *Wunderground *Your iPhone …etc…

6 *Nowcasting (Up to six hours) *Short/medium range (Up to 7-10 days) *Long range/intraseasonal/seasonal *Climate (IPCC) Types of Forecasts

7 *Nowcasting (Up to six hours) *Short/medium range (Up to 7-10 days) *Long range/intraseasonal/seasonal *Climate (IPCC) Types of Forecasts

8 When will the thunderstorm hit? When will the snow taper? When will the rain change to snow/sleet/freezing rain? Nowcasting

9 Radar Satellite Soundings Nowcasting Tools

10 Surface (airport) observations

11 *Nowcasting (Up to six hours) *Short/medium range (Up to 7-10 days) *Long range/intraseasonal/seasonal *Climate (IPCC) Types of Forecasts

12 Short/Medium Range Forecasting Computer models needed! Models use: -Current surface observations -Upper air observations -Previous forecast …and then…

13 Short/Medium Range Forecasting From MetEd / UCAR

14 Models GFS - 16 days, global, U.S.A. NAM - 84 hours, N. America, U.S.A. HRRR/Rapid Refresh, 18 hours, U.S.A. ECMWF - 10 days, global, U.K. UKMET - global, U.K. NOGAPS - global, U.S.A. (Navy) JMA - Japan CMC - Canada WRF - Multiple domains, also run locally at Albany!

15 *Nowcasting (Up to six hours) *Short/medium range (Up to 7-10 days) *Long range/intraseasonal/seasonal *Climate (IPCC) Types of Forecasts

16 Long Range/Intraseasonal/Seasonal Various global “signals” that help meteorologists forecast on longer time scales. -ENSO (El Niño/La Niña)

17 Long Range/Intraseasonal/Seasonal Also… -Lots of other complex atmospheric waves in the tropics… From Dr. Paul Roundy, UAlbany

18 Hurricane Sandy, October 2012

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22 National Hurricane Center Forecast for Hurricane Sandy 5 PM EDT October 24, 2012

23 Evening of October 25, 2012

24 Other forecast challenges: Precipitation type! Forecast temperature profile for March 19, 2013 winter storm

25 ACTUAL temperature profile for March 19, 2013 winter storm... Close call for a heavy sleet storm! Other forecast challenges: Precipitation type!

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