National Weather Service

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CheapCigarMan
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National Weather Service

Post by CheapCigarMan »

When looking at the weather forecast on the NWS site it gives a location, elevation, and a forecast.

Is that the forecast for that specific location and elevation?

Is there a weather “station” at that specific location?
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nyker
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Re: National Weather Service

Post by nyker »

I've wondered this too and use their site also. Appears to be a specific spot, specific location and elevation based on both empirical and modelled/simulated data.

I looked at NWS, brought up the map and did a test and clicked on the Elk range area, it came up with Aspen airport and showed GPS coordinates and elevation and time with a certain forecast, then repeated it with another spot more distant around Lake City and it refreshed with new data entirely.

On their site if you dig around there is a section for technology used:

"With 122 Weather Forecast Offices, 13 River Forecast Centers, nine National Centers, and other support offices, the NWS collects and analyzes more than 6.3 billion observations per day and releases about 1.5 million forecasts and 50,000 warnings each year. Forecasters build their forecasts with observations from surface stations, weather balloon readings and satellite data that feed numerical weather, water and climate models whose output is analyzed and scrutinized using individual scientific expertise. Forecasters communicate this information and potential impacts to the public, emergency managers, and other core partners to help make decisions that save lives and protect property."

So, per your question, it seems a combination of the above.

https://www.weather.gov/about/forecastsandservice
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Jim Davies
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Re: National Weather Service

Post by Jim Davies »

I believe it's for the center of the 2.5 kilometer square shown on the map.
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greenonion
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Re: National Weather Service

Post by greenonion »

I've always assumed there is a lot of spatial interpolating going on in the models, as opposed to actual weather readings coming from all over the surface of the land. Not sure that gets to the heart of the question though.
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