Weather
You'd figure that after having spent twenty-five years of my life in Oregon I'd know the difference between:
Rain Mist
Misting
Light Sprinkles
Sprinkles
Light Rain
Light Showers
Heavy Sprinkles
Showers
Heavy Showers
Rain
Heavy Rain
Torrential Downpour
But really, where the frick is the dividing line between them?
Or the difference between:
Scattered Clouds
Slightly Cloudy
Cloudy
Mostly Cloudy
Overcast
Heavy Clouds
Is there actually set guidelines to differentiate between these things? Is it just dependent on the weather forecasters moods? Is meteorology actually a science at all? I have this long-standing suspicion that the only difference between a meteorologist and a fortune-teller is that meteorologists get green screens and radar domes to play with.
Blegh.
posted by Hythian at 10:18:00 am
3 Comments:
(a) Where the hell did you come from? *boggles* How do people find this thing...
(b) Neat. I was curious as to what the hell those actual terms really meant. Though I get the feeling that the local weather forecasters are a bit more liberal then literal on their actual predictions and terminology.
(c) Have to respect that as a science, because that has to be pretty insane to make sense of a system as complex as it is. Given the number of variables that would have to go into making predictions.
However, I still don't respect the local 'weathermen' in the PDX area though.
One of the local stations did a bet last year where they would give 50 dollars to charity for every day they predicted wrong.
Apparently the only day they got wrong was the 70 degree day last January which just happened oddly mid-week. Which, you know, sounded reliable and all good until I watched the weather forecast last night...
When you predict "Chance of rain, possible clearing and sunshine, highs in the 40s to 50s, lows in the 30s to 40s" you have pretty much covered damn near all bases. You got your rain, you got your cloudiness, you got your sunshine, you got a 20 degree margin of error for both the highs and the lows... It'd take something really messed up to happen to get that wrong.
Sun Jan 29, 03:59:00 pm GMT-8
(d) Oh, while I am pestering you with questions in the comments... ( Is it really pestering if I am doing this on my own blog and you have the choice of coming back and reading and replying or not? Hmm. ) Is there a listing for the geographical standards for the terms? Several of the terms specific standards for degrees of precipitation based upon geographical locale, is there a chart or a guide somewhere saying that "X amount of rain is 'Heavy Rain' in the Portland area" vs "Y amount of rain is 'Heavy Rain' in the Denver area"?
Sun Jan 29, 04:01:00 pm GMT-8
I would assume that there is some geographical fudging.
Mon Jan 30, 05:31:00 am GMT-8
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