Keep on Truckin'

So...I was just about ready to delete this blog, citing pure laziness, but then I decided to give it another good ol' fashion college try. Honestly, the reason for no posting has been my recent obsession phase with my other passion; weather. I have experienced the least snowy winter of my life. I decided to go and really figure out why Canada was receiving record snow while us in the Mid-Atlantic were getting peanuts! So, several weeks later (and countless hours of online research) I finally have a decently firm grasp of synoptic weather and broader climate. I by-passed the TV weatherman and went straight for those elusive "computer models" that they always talk about. They're relatively complicated at first, but you can get the hang of them (if you care enough and have patience). Long story short, I no longer get stark, raving mad at forecasters for being wrong, as I have a whole new understanding of what they really do. I can essentially make my own forecasts now (nothing precise, of course, I'm not saying a meteorologist's job can be learned in a matter of weeks).

Below is an example of one of several weather models put out by NOAA, the Europeans, or Canada. This is the RUC (Rapid Update Cycle) Model and is only used for short term guidance (12 hours). It may look like a bunch of squiggly lines, but there's a lot of information there. I've been "studying" weather since elementary school, but I've only just opened the door on the hardcore science behind it all. Anyway, I plan to really go hard on global warming issues in the near future. I'll probably offend somebody :-)

Unisys Weather