Weather

[Sea Ray]

I thought I'd start a thread to discuss weather this and weather that. I do hope Dan will take an active role in this thread but I must say I did not ask him privately if he would be willing to give us educated answers to our questions.

I'll start with mine:

I just got back from Northern Michigan and the weather was crazy as it often is this time of year. Temps were bottoming out in the mid to lower 30s and it was blustery.

1) What causes water spouts? I know tornadoes do but I heard on the local weather forecasts that water spouts were likely. I know they weren't talking about tornadoes.

2) What causes lake effect snow and rain? We had both while I was there. Strange. One area got 4" and another a few miles away got no accumulation.

I'm very interested in weather and I miss the Weather Channel's 24 hr weather. Local radar channels have also been dropped in the Cincinnati area.

[SunDeck]

I know vaguely why these happen but I couldn't explain it better than Wikipedia. But I like this idea; as a sailor I am very interested in understanding what clouds tell us about approaching weather, what skies look like for fairest winds, etc.

[RedsManRick]

Lake effect explained:

[RedEye]

[Sea Ray]

Anyone heard what changes are coming for the Weather Channel? They've cut Al Roker and Sam Champion is down to his last week. Stephanie Abrams has been "reassigned" . They also say that they're cutting out their primetime reality shows. I sure hope they get back to weather, live weather

[SunDeck]

Anyone heard what changes are coming for the Weather Channel? They've cut Al Roker and Sam Champion is down to his last week. Stephanie Abrams has been "reassigned" . They also say that they're cutting out their primetime reality shows. I sure hope they get back to weather, live weather

I don't know, but I haven't gotten any weather information from the Weather Channel in years. I use Weather Underground, Windfinder, NOAA. The reason has nothing to do with the quality of their information, but rather I suppose I've been living with a perception that the Weather Channel had become focused on weather shows, rather than actual forecasts.

[Sea Ray]

I don't know, but I haven't gotten any weather information from the Weather Channel in years. I use Weather Underground, Windfinder, NOAA. The reason has nothing to do with the quality of their information, but rather I suppose I've been living with a perception that the Weather Channel had become focused on weather shows, rather than actual forecasts.

Those are sites and not tv channels. For what it's worth, if you're watching wunderground, you're now watching the weather channel 'cause it was bought by the WC a short while ago

[SunDeck]

Those are sites and not tv channels. For what it's worth, if you're watching wunderground, you're now watching the weather channel 'cause it was bought by the WC a short while ago

My point was really that people don't watch TV to get weather information anymore. I wasn't aware they were now owned by WC. Anyway, what I recall about Wunderground was that they were early in crowd sourcing weather data. That and Windfinder (or Windalert) are good for me because I can look at the conditions at several weather stations in my region to see whether the forecast and the actual data coincide.

[Sea Ray]

My point was really that people don't watch TV to get weather information anymore. I wasn't aware they were now owned by WC. Anyway, what I recall about Wunderground was that they were early in crowd sourcing weather data. That and Windfinder (or Windalert) are good for me because I can look at the conditions at several weather stations in my region to see whether the forecast and the actual data coincide.

I've enjoyed Wunderground for many years. I hope WC doesn't screw it up.

I'm still traditional in that I do seek weather on my TV. I'm not into smart phones

[Kingspoint]

My point was really that people don't watch TV to get weather information anymore.

I get mine from NOAA, for the most part. But, like the Buffalo area, Portland is in a unique position where all of the weather data out there can't predict it's weather accurately.....not really close at all. Every meteorologist in the area agrees on this. Personal experience and guessing by local meteorologists gets better results than those who follow computer models too strictly. The computer models are wrong more than they are right around here. Trying to predict three days in advance around here is nearly impossible. The night before is difficult enough. Most of the time the models can't predict in the morning what will happen in the afternoon.

The major problem they all agree on is the weather that comes from the East through the funnel of the Columbia Gorge out of the Columbia Basin. While most of the weather comes from the West, Northwest and Southwest, it's coming off of the Ocean unobstructed, then is blocked by the Cascade Range, the Olympic Peninsula, effected from the South by the Willamette Valley, and then everything gets tossed into a swirl from what flows through the funnel of the Columbia Gorge.

It seems to change year by year which weatherman is better at predicting the weather around here, but I definitely pay attention to the one I believe does the best job. He's likely to be much more accurate than any computer model anyone can come up with.

[cumberlandreds]

What is The Weather Channel? I have Verizon Fios TV and they cut it from their lineup back in the winter. I haven't really missed it either. They did have a weather scan channel that had local forecast,radar etc.. and I missed that more. They put on Accuweather as a replacement but it is pretty awful. Nothing much locally and the people on it don't seem very knowlegeable.

[RedEye]

I wasn't aware that weather buffs were a thing. The things I learn...

[Dom Heffner]

I wasn't aware that weather buffs were a thing. The things I learn...

Oh man, weather is fascinating. It's the planet in action.

We get water spouts here in Tampa and they are simply beautiful. As long as nobody gets hurt.

[cumberlandreds]

I wasn't aware that weather buffs were a thing. The things I learn...

Just don't be buff in the weather. That could hurt.

[Sea Ray]

I wasn't aware that weather buffs were a thing. The things I learn...

Now you know something else about Sea Ray. I'm sure you're surprised that I don't spend all of my waking hours thinking of ways that I can screw the black man...