Quiz____?
What is the function of the National Center for Environmental Prediction? -
Answer✓✓
The National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) receives global weather data
from several world meteorological centers many times each day. The data are analyzed and
plotted, and forecasts are prepared and transmitted to National Center for Environmental
Prediction (NCEP).
Quiz____?
How does a weather watch differ from a weather warning? -
Answer✓✓
Weather watch- Indicates that atmospheric conditions favor hazardous weather occurring
over a particular region during a specified time period. These hazards may or may not
actually develop, and their timing and location are uncertain, so a watch simply means be on
"watch" for that threat and to be prepared to act if necessary
Weather Warning- Indicates that the hazard now occurring or imminent is considered to be
a threat to life and/or property (tornadoes, thunderstorms, etc)
Quiz____?
List at least four tools a weather forecaster might use when making a short-range forecast -
Answer✓✓
Doppler radar, surface weather, maps & upper air winds
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, Quiz____?
How does a prog differ from an analysis? -
Answer✓✓
Analysis is what is going on right now and a prog is a forecast
Quiz____?
In what ways have high-speed computers assisted the meteorologist in making weather
forecasts? -
Answer✓✓
Computer-generated weather forecasts can analyze large quantities of data extremely fast.
Each day the many thousands of observations transmitted to NCEP are fed into a high-speed
computer, which plots and draws lines on surface and upper-air charts. Meteorologists
interpret the weather patterns and then correct any errors that may be present. The
routine daily forecasting of weather by the computer has come to be known as numerical
weather prediction. To help forecasters handle all the available charts and maps, high-speed
data modeling systems using computers are employed.
Quiz____?
How are computer-generated forecasts prepared? -
Answer✓✓
The models are programmed into the computer, and surface and upper-air observations of
temperature, pressure, moisture, winds, and air density are fed into the equations. To
determine how each of these variables will change, each equation is solved for a small
increment of future time, say, 5 minutes, for a large number of locations called grid points;
each situated a given distance apart. In addition, each equation is solved for as many as 50
levels in the atmosphere. The results of these computations are then fed back into the
original equations. The computer again solves the equations with the new "data," thus
predicting weather over the following 5 minutes. The computer then analyzes the data and
draws the projected positions of pressure systems with their isobars or contour lines.
2
, Quiz____?
What are some of the problems associated with computer-model forecasts? -
Answer✓✓
Observations over uninhabited regions
Weather systems crossing boundaries of models
Forecasting small scale evens with larger grids
Quiz____?
Suppose that where you live, the middle of January is typically several degrees warmer than
the rest of the month. If you forecast this "January thaw" for the middle of next January,
what type of weather forecast will you have made? -
Answer✓✓
Climatological
Quiz____?
Describe four methods of forecasting the weather and give an example for each one -
Answer✓✓
Persistence Forecasts- A prediction that future weather will be the same as present weather
Steady-state- Surface weather systems tend to move in same direction and at approximately
the same speed as they have been moving, providing no evidence exists to indicate
otherwise
Analogue- Relies on the fact that existing features on a weather chart may strongly resemble
features that produced certain weather conditions sometime in the past
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