L.18 Weather Forecasting
After how days are forecasts just speculation as there are just too many variables to be considered?
10
Worldwide, about how many surface stations are there that are used for forecasts?
10,000
Of these days number of days in the future, which of these is mostly likely make the computer burst in to flames and be wildly incorrect in the forecast?
15 days
There are approximately _______ NEXRAD stations around the United States.
160
Numerical weather prediction on computers began in:
1950s
Which is the finest resolution of these grids?
3 kilometers
The name of the standardized computer network currently used for forecasts nationwide is:
AWIPS
A 50-kilometer grid in a numerical weather prediction model would be best for:
Air mass movement
Satellite imagery excels at what aspect of weather:
Clouds
If you are looking at two model runs, and you make one small change to the input data for the first model run, keeping everything else the same, those two model runs will result in the same forecast.
False
The first step in any forecast is ____________________ the data.
Gathering
Satellite images for weather purposes come from what kind of satellites?
Geo-sync
The first sets of weather models were __________ in size.
Kilobytes
Which of the following are most forecasts are done through?
Numerical Weather Prediction
Radar is excellent at displaying this variable, in terms of weather.
Precipitation
___________ models are one way of describing models.
Spaghetti
AWIPS deals with ___________ of data per second.
Terabytes
Why do ensemble models break down over time?
The individual models begin to disagree
Why are ensemble models good?
They mitigate risk
A 5-kilometer grid in a numerical weather prediction model would be best for:
Thunderstorms development
ASOS stands for Automated Surface Observing Systems.
True
Ensemble forecasts are good because they can mitigate risk and uncertainty.
True
Forecasts wind up being wrong because over time, more and more variables have to be accounted for and at the present moment with computer technology, we just cannot address everything.
True
Grid resolution is important because resolution dictates what we can study and how much computing power we need.
True
Processing weather data for a forecast usually requires programming skills.
True
Spring is the hardest time for models to make accurate predictions beyond a few days.
True
Radar and satellites are excellent for forecasts because they _________ forecasts.
Validate
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of current technology and science to predict how the present state of the atmosphere will change for a future time and a given location. Basic Steps: data collection; data quality control; data assimilation; running the model; post-processing of the model outputs; and interpretation of the model forecast by a forecast specialist (meteorologist). The final product of this process is a weather forecast, which is made available by weather reporting agencies to the public and you have access to every day on television, online, or on your smartphone. We will no go through each of these steps in greater detail.
In a spaghetti model, a great deal of disagreement between the models is evident by:
a thicker line
Geo-synch satellites do all of the following, except:
constantly shift ascension and deflection to get the same view.
Which of the following are the basic steps in the creation of every forecast?
data assimilation running the model data collection
Weather forecasting is:
the application of current technology and science to predict how the present state of the atmosphere will change for a future time and a given location.
