Questions tagged [meteorology]
The study of how the earth's atmosphere works, including weather forecasting. Use this tag for questions about the earth's weather. When asking questions specifically about the atmosphere, also include the [atmosphere] tag.
756
questions
13
votes
1answer
409 views
Why (actually) is the night sky so bright in the city? How far up is that happening?
The recent news reported by the New York Times, the BBC and the NPR web sites (for example) as well as in the Iceland Review and Iceland Magazine sites, about the shutting-off of Reykjavik's ...
4
votes
1answer
67 views
Uncertainty In ERA-Interim data
Greeting,
What is the estimated uncertainty value in Temperature, relative humidity, U and V winds of ERA-Interim data?
2
votes
0answers
50 views
For how long can the wind blow unabated on a “trade wind route”?
Take a specific point at sea level (less than 100 meters above it) on a "trade wind" oceanic route. For example, somewhere on Labrador-Ireland route, at roughly 50 degrees of latitude north. Let's say,...
10
votes
1answer
4k views
What causes the 'calm before the storm'?
The old adage "The calm before the storm" certainly has an observational scientific meaning to it -- something that many (including myself) have experienced -- that on a hot summer's day, when a ...
20
votes
4answers
3k views
Can the previous weather be computed from the current situation?
If one applies today's state-of-the-art weather forecast computations "backwards", i.e. computing how the systems was X days before the current situation based on knowledge of today's situation, at ...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
Plotting moist static energy fluxes
I'm trying to plot Moist static energy fluxes (vectors) and their divergence like the attached Figure. I have monthly means of u, v, temperature, specific humidity and geopotential from(1000-100 hPa) ...
3
votes
1answer
407 views
How to calculate the solar radiation at any place, any time
The solar radiation is one of the important factors controlling the formation of $O_3$, and thereby impacting the levels of various secondary species in the atmosphere.
However, in the campaign of ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
Is there a conventional name for when wind speed increases as a result of a large descending air mass?
I remember reading a long time ago in a meteorology book that certain dust storms were caused by a rapid descent of a large air mass. As the air is pressed against the ground, it is forced to spread ...
2
votes
2answers
105 views
Can you have a low pressure with no clouds?
My understanding is that low pressure is usually associated with cloudy skies, however in the last week I observed a day that had low pressure reading but no clouds. Is this possible or did I perhaps ...
1
vote
1answer
386 views
Relationship between pressure, temperature and density in meterology
I have been learning meteorology a bit on my own, and one thing that never gets answered clearly is the relationship of pressure, temperature, and density.
When I looked it up, the density of air at ...
7
votes
1answer
196 views
Could a “sunbrella” parked at L1 block enough solar energy to counter global warming?
What part of the Earth should be "shaded"; the poles or the equator?
Since the size of the sunbrella would depend on its ability to reduce certain wavelengths of radiation; what material or ...
30
votes
2answers
43k views
At what humidity does it start to rain?
As far as I understand it is perfectly valid for air to have 100% humidity. At that point, all water can still exist in form of vapor, non-condensed.
Does it immediately start to rain if humidity is >...
4
votes
1answer
602 views
Are you more likely to get a sunburn at the pole than the equator?
After looking at this post I can see that a flat object is more exposed to the sun at the equator. Does this mean that a person walking around (standing up), is much more likely to burn at the poles ...
2
votes
1answer
163 views
Could a firestorm create a hurricane-like cyclone?
Mesocyclones form when air rises and rotates in a "pillar" of sorts. It's sometimes associated with thunderclouds and tornado formation.
A certain kind of cumulonimbus, the cumulonimbus flammagenitus,...
0
votes
1answer
33 views
Precipitation Totals past days online?
I am looking for a website that can I look for to check and see the precipitation totals for past days..
I go to this site : https://www.cocorahs.org/ . It lacks in some areas where I live in the ...
3
votes
1answer
66 views
Ocean air reaching maximum humidity
How many miles (or how many hours/days) does air have to travel over the ocean to reach maximum humidity or carry the maximum amount of water it would hold at typical humidity assuming a wind speed of ...
2
votes
1answer
85 views
Why do clouds have ceilings and bases?
What is the point called when water can not rise above or visually seem to have a ceiling in the atmosphere? What makes that point ideal?
0
votes
1answer
112 views
Does the Columbia Basin, North Cascades and Idaho Panhandle/Clearwater get a lot of violent, rotating supercellular thunderstorms?
Every storm season, supercells erupt in Montana and Wyoming. Wayward cold-core setups can trigger supercells or even long-tracked strong tornadoes in the Columbia/Willamette Valley and the rest of SW ...
5
votes
1answer
283 views
How does the tornado chaser locate the spot?
In my opinion, tornado is hard to forecast in three different aspects:
The size of tornado is about 100 ~ 1000 m which can't be represented well in weather model or detected by limited weather ...
3
votes
0answers
34 views
Where to find meteorological data from road stations?
I am involved on a project that aims to analyze data from road weather stations, like the ones you can see from a German site here:
https://www.dwd.de/EN/ourservices/bufr_extensions_national/...
3
votes
0answers
64 views
Do NO2 and O3 titrate each other out in the atmosphere?
Here is a plot of the vertical column densities of NO2 and O3 from an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is interesting to see that when NO2 dips, O3 rises, and vice versa. Also,...
1
vote
2answers
252 views
What is the highest balloons possible in a chain?
The BU60-1 balloon attained an altitude of 53.0 km (32.9 mi; 173,900 ft).
Weather permitting, would a series of climbable balloons in a chain be able to be linked from the ground to that height of ...
3
votes
1answer
161 views
Is there a maximum size for a single snowflake?
Just based on my previous experiences a wetter snow, in general, has larger flakes. Some online sources say that raindrops do have a maximum size before they start to break apart when surface tension ...
3
votes
1answer
24 views
Data of terrestrial evapotranspiration over large areas?
I have been looking for information regarding the total amount of water that evaporates from terrestrial systems and found some global estimates like this one
http://www.waterandclimatechange.eu/...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
Are there areas of desert sands which experience blizzards?
Building off of another question I recently asked (Is there sand in Antarctica?) I want to ask a broader question coming from the same motive described there.
Are there desert sands that experience ...
4
votes
4answers
648 views
How can we calculate the total water mass that falls during a flood?
I would like to know how to calculate how much water fell on California during, for instance, the mid-February 2017 flood. I know how to look up the total rainfall at a specific weather station. And,...
11
votes
2answers
591 views
How do we measure (or empirically calculate) the amount of entropy in the atmosphere and oceans?
Here's a paper on the entropy budget1, where moist entropy is defined in equation (8) as
$$
s = (1-q_t)(C_{pd} \ln T - R_d \ln p_d) + q_t C_l \ln T + \frac{q_v L_v}{T} - q_v R_v \ln \mathcal{H}
$$
...
2
votes
0answers
51 views
Tower cumulus clouds without lightnings
Is there any possibility to have tower cumulus (or cumulonimbus in worst case) without lightnings? And if this is happen what is the factor that cause this phenomenon?
2
votes
1answer
97 views
How to know to which PC (Principal Component) a sample belongs in EOF/PCA
I applied EOF (Empirical Orthogonal Function, a type of Principal Component Analysis, PCA) analysis to a dataset(geopotential height at 925hpa from ECMWF-interim reanalysis data) that contains 3 ...
4
votes
1answer
149 views
Single-layer water content variables
In different reanalysis products (ERA 20C and NOAA/OAR/ESRL/PSD 20th Century daily data specifically) one can find the following variables:
Total column water (ERA)
Total column rain water (ERA)
...
3
votes
0answers
909 views
Moisture flux convergence in GrADS
I want to calculate vertically integrated moisture flux convergence (VIMFC) in GrADS.
But when I give the following instruction it marks me errors:
...
6
votes
1answer
5k views
Is it typically colder after a storm?
I've heard that it's colder after a storm. I think this is an interesting question, not least because of the implicit comparison: colder than what? A few different comparisons come to mind, and still ...
2
votes
1answer
294 views
Does the snow come from local moisture or transported moisture?
Currently there is a snow storm coming from Europe over the UK. This is drastically dropping the temperature and making it snow lots.
Is the snow coming from moisture that has been brought over from ...
1
vote
1answer
47 views
Where can I get good raw meteorological data for Middle East?
I live in the Middle East and I am really fond of understanding meteorology and using raw data make my own weather predictions. However, a limitation I encounter here is that most raw meteorological ...
1
vote
1answer
352 views
WRF: EPSG code or spatial reference for Lambert conformal, Mercator and polar stereographic projections [closed]
I'm building an R package (https://github.com/ibarraespinosa/wrftools) to read namelist.wps and return a dynamic map which you can make zoom. In my case, it would be very beneficial because writing a ...
5
votes
0answers
40 views
Why does the Earth have six atmospheric bands? [duplicate]
I know that the earth has atmospheric banding like the gas giants.
What I want to know is why six in specific? What physical processes or equations determine the number of atmospheric bands on a ...
2
votes
1answer
329 views
How do cold air masses reach South America?
I've heard meteorologists say that the cold air masses that reach South America during the winter months don't originate in the polar region. I always thought they crossed the strait of Drake and ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Running WRF with ECMWF GRIB2 model levels
ECMWF model data comes in a hybrid GRIB format, that is, model level output is stored in GRIB2 messages, whereas surface data still uses GRIB1 format. Ungrib is unable to understand this hybrid GRIB ...
2
votes
1answer
466 views
Required temperature difference between land and sea for sea breeze
What is the required temperature difference between the sea and the land in order to create a sea breeze? Is there any relation between the temperature difference and the sea breeze intensity? Is ...
5
votes
0answers
65 views
Can a tornado burn itself out?
I know that hurricanes can basically "burn" themselves out of energy if they get too strong, but can the same thing happen with a tornado?
7
votes
1answer
220 views
Who would know how to manage rainwater erosion on a sloped property?
I'm a meteorologist with little experience in hydrology. I'm studying my land with the rainwater flow patterns during heavy rain events and looking to manage the erosion, flash flooding, and ponding ...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
Calculating a cloud cover index based on comparison of horizontal and tilted irradiance from pyranometers
I have data from 2 pyranometers, one in the horizontal plane and one in a tilted plane. The relevance of the tilting relates to their useage in solar-power plants whereby the tilt is in the same plane ...
3
votes
2answers
96 views
Does the NWS actually name winter storms, or is this exclusive to the Weather Channel?
If you occasionally check the Weather Channel (either the smartphone app or online), you'll see they reference strong weather systems by name. (It only seems to be eastern storms.) I've always ...
2
votes
1answer
158 views
Looking for global cloud cover animations or videos
I am looking for a video of global cloud cover. Something like an animated version of this image:
(Originally presented at http://naturalearth.springercarto.com/ne3_data/8192/clouds/africa_clouds_8k....
1
vote
2answers
85 views
How should one compare the comfort of climates?
Is there a way to measure the overall feel of the weather for a place?
Suppose that:
Place A has Temperature $33^o C$, Humidity $57\%$, Wind $14\;km/hr$, and Precipitation $20\%$
Place B has ...
4
votes
1answer
40 views
What is an 'obstacle vista diagram'?
Currently I do some research about SODAR and at this paper, the author wrote (p. 1502f):
A site should be relatively clear of obstacles that could act as
potential fixed-echo reflectors. If that ...
2
votes
1answer
37 views
Where can I find detailed historical breakdowns of U.S. lightning fatalities on a year-by-year basis?
e.g. Something like this, but for historical years (preferably covering 1980-2007, since the NWS detailed lists only start from 2008). Location of strike, victim name, where the victim was at (under ...
6
votes
3answers
15k views
What is a temperature inversion and can it trap smog/pollution?
Just as the title says, I heard about this term but am not sure how it works.
4
votes
0answers
40 views
What are typical ranges of rainfall drop sizes, speeds, and areal or volume densities?
I'd like to look into the possibility of using a Raspberry Pi and the PiCam module to detect rain, and to try to make some measurements of droplet size and rate. This could be done using an LED flash ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Can anyone recommend a good college level meteorology textbook?
I am trying to learn meteorology through self-study. I have found quite a few lectures on YouTube, but they tend to be for non-scientists.
I have a strong engineering and physics background and am ...
