Category Archives: Weather forecasting

How to analyse your forecast diary properly

Posted on 14 January, 2020 by danaallen

By: Jochen Broecker As you are reading a science blog, I am sure you are interested in science, and either as a parent or during your childhood you will have seen these books aimed at children interested in the natural … Continue reading →

Posted in Predictability, Statistics, Uncategorized, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

What do we do with weather forecasts?

Posted on 20 May, 2019 by danaallen

By: Peter Clark As I sat in the Kia Oval in Kennington having taken a day off to watch the first One Day International between England and Pakistan, I had plenty of time to appreciate the accuracy and utility of … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Predictability, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Is it a normal season this year for tropical cyclones in the Western North Pacific?

Posted on 19 November, 2018 by danaallen

By Xiangbo Feng  The Western North Pacific (WNP) is the most active area for tropical cyclones (TCs).  The number of TCs occurred in the WNP so far (end of October) this year is 26 – just the average number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Atmospheric circulation, Climate, Climate modelling, earth observation, ENSO, Equatorial waves, Historical climatology, Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), Numerical modelling, Seasonal forecasting, Tropical cyclones, Waves, Weather forecasting, Western North Pacific, Wind | Leave a comment

Smoke, science, and sharks

Posted on 5 November, 2018 by hjia

By Ross Herbert In the August of 2017 the Cloud-Aerosol-Radiation Interactions and Forcing – Year 2017 (CLARIFY) measurement campaign took place on a tiny island in the middle of the southeast Atlantic Ocean where we were surrounded by whales, sharks, … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic, Atmospheric chemistry, Atmospheric circulation, Atmospheric optics, Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Clouds, Data collection, earth observation, Energy budget, Environmental hazards, Greenhouse gases, Measurements and instrumentation, Microphysics, Numerical modelling, Solar radiation, Weather forecasting, Wind | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sting jets in winter storms : how do the winds get so strong?

Posted on 20 August, 2018 by hjia

By Ambrogio Volonté Figure 1: Windstorm Tini (12 Feb 2014) passes over the British Isles bringing extreme winds. A sting jet has been identified in the storm. Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory The arrival of a winter storm battering … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, extratropical cyclones, Monsoons, Numerical modelling, University of Reading, Weather forecasting | Tagged , | Leave a comment

DARE to use datasets of opportunity

Posted on 2 July, 2018 by hjia

By Joanne Waller To accurately forecast the weather, we must first describe what is currently happening in the atmosphere. To determine the current atmospheric state, we could use: Previous forecasts (data from complex computational models of the atmosphere) which provide … Continue reading →

Posted in earth observation, Flooding, University of Reading, Weather forecasting | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tibetan Plateau Vortices

Posted on 25 June, 2018 by hjia

By Julia Curio Tibetan Plateau Vortices (TPVs) are meso-scale cyclones that originate over the Tibetan Plateau and move eastwards steered by the subtropical westerly jet above. These storms can also move off the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and travel as far … Continue reading →

Posted in China, earth observation, extratropical cyclones, Flooding, Monsoons, Numerical modelling, University of Reading, Weather forecasting | Leave a comment

The “size” of the NWP/DA problem

Posted on 8 May, 2018 by Stephen Burt

By Javier Amezcua There is a professor in the University of Reading that likes to say that the Data Assimilation (DA) problem in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is larger than the size of the universe (estimated to be around 1080 … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Numerical modelling, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment

What’s in a number?

Posted on 10 July, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Nancy Nichols Should you care about the numerical accuracy of your computer? After all, most machines now retain about 16 digits of accuracy, but usually only about 3-4 figures of accuracy are needed for most applications;  so what’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate modelling, Numerical modelling, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Can observations of the ocean help predict the weather?

Posted on 12 June, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Amos Lawless It has long been recognized that there are strong interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. For example, the sea surface temperature affects what happens in the lower boundary of the atmosphere, while heat, momentum and moisture … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundary layer, Numerical modelling, Oceans, Weather forecasting | Tagged | Leave a comment