Anyone pay attention to noaa or anything beyond predictor sites for swells? If so what? And how? Basically I'm interested in how isobars & barometric pressure effect swells and what to look for beyond simple low pressure systems, etc
A very complex question with many variables. Seeing that you are on the west coast coast and in the northern hemisphere, high and low pressures generally move from west to east, caused by the jet stream. Between these pressure gradients, are fronts, warm and cold. Cold air comes from the north, warm air comes from the south. Think of those pressure pockets of air as domes, rising up (high) or pressing down (low). Along the edges of these domes of air the air sinks (cold) or rises, (warm). The longer these fronts collide with one another, the more unstable they become ultimately warm air taking over causing more downward pressure in the atmosphere, hence a storm is formed. That's my take on it and by no means am I a meteorologist. Before TWC and all the surf site forecasts, all we relied upon was what was going on with the weather and wind direction. Which is really all you need anyway. Hope this helped
My mistake YP. ME I suppose? Geographically we are close in proximity. Same rules apply though. However here in the east, storms move up and off our coast giving us a shorter window of opportunity to get swells as they move away. Also, remember winds rotate clockwise and down around a high pressure and counter clockwise and up, around a low pressure. Stay on it!
So the longer they interact the better? What peaked my interest was a swell this past winter where there was a low parked off the mid Atlantic somewhere and we were getting some avg hight (6 ft+) and avg groundswell (11-12ish) but it was heavier than any other ssize I'd been in...snapped my leash and sent my board through the air 150 yds to shore...it got me thinking I should try to figure out, or at least pay attention to atmospheric pressure - that shyte and maps (of all kinds) interests me as do stats (but I fuggin blow balls at math)
A glance at this usually works for me; tells me what I need to know. http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/ra1_09zs.gif
Don't be so tough on this kid... men. He is actually trying to learn something on here. The things we know already can be passed along in a more respectable way. Oh and by the way, it's cloudy today...men.
Hey pier. I really like to use weatherunderground.com for weather and tracking storms. I'm a bit of a weather nerd so I really enjoy going to the blogs and reading what some of the professionals and amateurs are posting. They really do a good job of keeping bs and crap out of the discussions so it's pretty informative most of the time. People post from all over the world in there as well so you can get a pretty good feel of what's going on. I really have learned a lot of information about weather and about how the models work and how complex forecasting really is.
Dos - funny stuff, I did get a laugh - I could and should probably be more productive in a lot of areas of my life and the wheely would save me a lot of time however, as 757 touched on, I wouldn't call weather a hobby, but learning more about how it works is more interesting than a spinny wheel
Fellow Weather Enthusiasts, I am a meteorologist. I have a degree in meteorology and currently work as an operational meteorologist in NJ. I love talking with other people who aren't necessarily in the field, but are still in love with weather. I will try to keep this brief, but the question your pier brought up is massive. Weather and surfing have always been 2 things with a unique relationship in my life, so I'll share a couple things. Everything forecasting these days is based on model guidance. You have to learn how to read the numerous dynamic and statistical models and how they handle certain weather scenarios to be a good forecaster. This comes with experience but here is a page I use as a model "hub" where you can view many (too many) operational model runs: http://mp1.met.psu.edu/~fxg1/ewall.html In case you're lost on that site, here is the GFS (American) Model: http://mp1.met.psu.edu/~fxg1/AVN_0z/avnloopnew.html I could go on and on about model bias and performance, but I'll leave that to your research if your interested. If learning more about weather is SUPER interesting, then check out the COMET program. Free courses/lessons on different meteorology topics: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_detail.php Cheers!
Model guidance?? hahahaha!! So, a computer model is created and then used to predict the weather with NO human interface. No wonder the forecasts are no better than flipping a coin!! That means, 50/50, half right, half wrong. Another area of employment and knowledge rendered useless by Bill Gates, et al.......
Yes model guidance... As in the models guide us (humans forecasters) into making a forecast. Its a man-machine mix which is a reason it can be so interesting. So barry cuda, you're a little off with the NO humans thing haha. I can get why your not too stoked on the field of meteorology, as forecasters can be wrong and keep their jobs, but I wouldn't rule out the importance of meteorology, as this entire website is thanks to a meteorologist.
Rule it out??? Hell no!! I find it interesting, but it is also in need of vast improvements. Computer models have frequently FAILED human endeavors. Climatology is a classic example of that failure.
