My background is two-fold
Originally when I went to university I had two passions geography/earth sciences and broadcasting/journalism. Two very different ends of the spectrum. While in University I was mainly self-taught with regards to how weather works and how to read weather maps and what ingredients are needed to create what weather. After I graduated, I decided to take it further and try to understand the atmospheric mathematics involved in it as well so that I could draw my own weather maps rather than read someone elses, thus creating my own forecasts. I decided to take an online course from Penn State (since I was working at the time too). The course was great and I feel like it was the missing link to my weather repetoir. Now I am also a trained CANWARN weather spotter as well as an amateur storm chaser.
Its always been a secret passion of mine. I'm very much a nerd haha.
I hope that answers your question sufficiently.
Last year Thayne was the man when he did the track forcasts. Had him do a couple Deleware forcasts last year and he was right when the local forcaster missed the mark.
Interesting Thane. I have a link to get your opinion on and any tips you may have using it in simple terms. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/radar_tab.php
I am with a travel team and use it quite often to see what is developing...... for what little knowledge I have it seems to be fairly close when I zero in on the local weathers anywhere and combine the 2. You probably have the training to pinpoint that much closer.
Thanks if you got tips on the link.
The US National Weather Service is a great website, they have dual dopplar radar country-wide. What this does is give more of a 3D image of the storm so even if it isn't raining it will pick up on developing storms by reflecting back moisture that is moving within the clouds. Thus the storms appear before they are mature to the point of raining.
The biggest key when using those devises (weather office, raydar and the weather netowrk up here) is to pin point the storm motion. Storm motion is key to tracking storms. It is the diference in a storm hitting or missing by a mile.
Now forecasting and tracking are two different things. Forecasting is pinpointing where storms/rain/snow will occur. Tracking it is harder. U need to use wind shear tools, Lower Level Jet stream affects, etc.
Basically. Radar is fantastic for tracking storms that have fired and in the broader scope, seeing systems and where they are accross the continent so you can see how many days until the system is In your backyard. But its not a good "forecast" tool.
www.twisterdata.com is a great sight to use as a forecast tool. Its also been developed for ease of use. Weather is forecasted using "Z time" which is the global measure of time. This sight takes that and moves it to the 24 hour clock. So it makes it easier to use for ppl who are a little less weather-educated.
Give it a look over. 🙂 the NAM, RAP and GFS are all credible weather models/maps that most people use.