Tag Archives: meteorologists

Big rains a comin’, maybe

The National Weather Service has the chances of rain Sunday night through Wednesday morning  starting at 70 percent and declining to 30 percent, and meteorologist Bob Rose was excited in his Friday column:

"…the weather forecast for Sunday and Monday has changed and there now appears to be a potential for significant rains across the Hill Country and Central Texas regions…" 

That’s where it’s needed to raise Lake Travis, for one thing.  But Bob only sees the rains from a slow-moving upper low continuing into Tuesday morning, and only 1 to 2 inches over the Hills, probably not enough to raise the lake more than a foot, if that. And if the low speeds up, the rain will be lighter.

But meteorologist Troy Kimmel was more enthusiastic in this morning’s email:

"In the atmospheric computer models, this system has continued to show signs that it’ll be a ‘slow mover’ as it crosses Texas. As a result, the NWS rainfall guidance has increased across the area…with 2 to 4 inches of rain being possible across the area…Isolated totals of 5 to 6 inches are possible…mainly north and east of the local area…" and with the dry ground taken into account, the potential for minor urban and small streams flash flooding.

After one of the driest Februaries in memory, we get excited about a rain forecast.

Arctic air or not?

Central Texas meteorologists, from the broadcasters to the National Weather Service, are having conniptions trying to figure out what’s going to happen this weekend into next week. Some say the coldest weather in many years, others aren’t sure:

"I’d like nothing more than to tell you that the [computer forecast] models have settled on a reasonable solution regarding the timing and/or intensity of this expected arctic air," writes meteorologist Troy Kimmel. "This, however, is not the case as the models continue to be quite divergent in their solutions which really doesn’t make us feel any more confident regarding exactly how this potential event will unfold."

So we’ll just have to wait a few more days for the computer models and their artful interpreters to decide what’s going to be what and where.

Global warming battle

Speaking of weather forecasting, In From The Cold has a well-researched post on the global warming to-do sparked by the Weather Channel’s Heidi Cullen. I won’t call her Dr. Cullen, because she’s not a physician, and my journalism training makes me balk at giving apparent physician status to a doctorate in anything else. As for the issue at hand–Cullen’s endorsement of global warming as human-made and her cheeky call for meteorologists who don’t get in line with her to be decertified by the American Meteorological Society–I have yet to meet a broadcast, or for that matter National Weather Service, meteorologist who believes global warming is a human product. That’s not to say that it isn’t, although there’re good arguments that it isn’t. Just that I–and apparently most of them– think the jury is still out. As Alan Sullivan, the Seablogger, has said: the founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, must be spinning in his grave.

UPDATE  Well, Coleman might be spinning in his grave, if he was dead. But he seems to be still doing the weather at KUSI-TV in San Diego.