National Weather Digest articles from December 1 2006

National Weather Digest archives from December 1 2006

On the imprecision of radar signature locations and storm path forecasts.
December 1, 2006... Abstract Weather radar data are often used to determine the location and projected path of severe weather without the understanding of the limitations inherently involved with these data. This paper documents the imprecision of radar-based...

The population bias of severe weather reports west of the Continental Divide.
December 1, 2006... Abstract Many severe storms in the West may go unreported or unobserved, and therefore, the severe weather climatology is not fully understood. However, as the population has increased in the West, so has the number of severe weather...

A primer on the ageostrophic wind.
December 1, 2006... Abstract The ageostrophic wind is an essential component of the synoptic-scale and mesoscale atmospheric environments, yet is often overlooked. A review of the underlying theory is presented, along with a derivation of the expression for...

The USE of climatology to construct a physically based method for diagnosing snow to liquid ratio.
December 1, 2006... Abstract A 30-year climatology of snow to liquid equivalent ratio (SLR) using National Weather Service Cooperative Summary of the Day data has been compiled. This climatology is useful to operational forecasters by allowing knowledge of...

A synoptic climatology for heavy snowfall events spanning the East Coast Megalopolis: insights from Northeast Snowstorms.
December 1, 2006... Abstract Analysis of the historical major snowfall events for the East Coast Megalopolis (Washington D.C. through Boston) reveals an interesting pattern. While storms bringing 10 inches or more to parts of the region have involved numerous...

The effect of using AWIPS LAPS to locally initialize the workstation Eta.
December 1, 2006... Abstract This study presents results from an experiment conducted to measure the impact of locally initializing an atmospheric computer model on the model's ability to predict precipitation. The study consisted of enhancing the Advanced...

A thermodynamic investigation of the early afternoon wet microburst pre-storm environment over southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.
December 1, 2006... Abstract Using Eglin Air Force Base, Florida afternoon rawinsonde sounding data, this study investigated the thermodynamic characteristics of the summertime, U.S. Gulf Coast, wet microburst environment. Uniquely, these soundings sampled...

Forecasting mesoscale convective complex movement in Central South America.
December 1, 2006... Abstract A method for operationally predicting the movement of the centroid, or coldest cloud tops, of mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs) in Central South America (CSA) is presented (Gasbarro 2003). The procedure of predicting the...

Diagnosing and forecasting aircraft turbulence with steepening mountain waves.
December 1, 2006... Abstract If aviation forecasters are to understand why pilots complain of rough rides in some weather situations over mountains, they should understand how mountain waves produce turbulence. Unfortunately, the extensive research in...

A new paradigm for parameterizations in numerical weather prediction and other atmospheric models.
December 1, 2006... Abstract The use of look-up-tables (LUTs) to represent parameterizations within numerical weather prediction and other atmospheric models is presented. We discuss several approaches as to how the use of LUTs can be optimized in order to...

Seals of (DIS)approval: television weathercasters debate the value of voluntary credentials.
December 1, 2006... Abstract Television weathercasters may be the most prominent science communicators in our modern society, yet we know little about them from the traditional scholarly literature. This study analyzes one of the most contentious subjects...