Reflections on General Curriculum and Class Discussions


Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I could read and understand the maps on the Weather Blog this morning.  And Don Harman noted that we will be in the front right quadrant of the "upper level flow" which meant we'd have some good lifting for storm formation - I knew what that meant, and could see it on the map!  Meteo 101 mission accomplished.


 
 

Reflections

The most important part of the course for me was learning about the Cyclone Model and how to identify fronts on a map with various data.  Being able to put symbols on a map together with clouds on a satellite image has also been one of the most interesting things I've learned.  These assignments gave us the experience of using what we'd just learned in a real-time environment, and showed us how to access the various weather data available on the web.  These tools are invaluable in determining weather at any given place at any given time.

I knew there were a lot of scientific principles involved in meteorology, but I didn't realize there were so many minute variables.  It's amazing how one map can show you so many things, all to be considered for forecasting the simplest weather movement.  The answer to "Is it going to rain?" is complicated and multi-faceted.  The answer is never "Yes" or "No" by any means.  It's full of Ifs and Probabilities and Percentages.  A better answer for that question would be "It depends."  Because it does!

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