when weather forecasts are so drastically different, who do you find to be the most accurate?

when weather forecasts are so drastically different, who do you find to be the most accurate?
For example, the weather channel says Thursday partly cloudy during the day and just rain at night. NOAA says thunderstorms likely at night. Accuweather says “breezy with a shower or thunderstorm around”. Who tends to be the most accurate?
yep talking about the same place.

Suggestion by artsywriternch
are they talking about the same place?

Suggestion by Mr.Weather
There will be a storm system that will likely develop across the southern Tennessee Valley Thursday-Friday that is expected to bring some severe thunderstorms into the area. The forecast is still subject to change but you should definitely keep an eye on the forecasts. I find the National Weather Service to be more accurate that The Weather Channel.

I would say that your area will have a good chance of thunderstorms Thursday night and into Friday.

Suggestion by StormJunkie
You bring up a very interesting point, and really this is what makes weather so fascinating if you ask me. For the most part all of these agencies are trying their best to make accurate forecasts all the time. Unfortunately our environment does what it wants and not what our forecasters and weather models say it should be doing. Personally I think you have listed three very different agencies. TWC is the mainstream private weather media that almost everyone is familiar with. They do a great job of keeping the masses informed and are pretty accurate with the three day forecast. TWC and Accuweather are businesses, not only that, they are big business. Personally, I think this can sometimes show in their forecasting, although this could also just be me being over critical because I enjoy following the weather in a little more detail then the average Joe.

Now on to the NWS/NOAA. This is where your weather forecast and information really comes from to begin with. The Weather Channel as well as Accuweather get almost all of their weather information and data from the NWS, NOAA, and NOAA equipment. This weather information and data is mostly coming from government agencies, military institutions, as well as educational institutions which are funded with our tax dollars. So essentially, the three that you mentioned get to look at the same satellite images, forecast models, surface readings and more; then they take the data and do the best they can to produce an accurate forecast.

The NWS/NOAA will provide the most detailed look at the environment and what factors will be playing in to the weather forecast. The local NWS offices put out a forecast discussion several times per day and they will update them more often during weather events. These discussions can usually be found from the home page of your local NWS office and you can find the NWS home page for each region here http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ Just click on the region on the map to view. From there you should be able to find the Forecast discussion. The discussions can get a little complex and it will take a little time to understand the lingo used in these discussions. I still get confused when reading them sometimes. These discussions really provide the most detailed analysis of the weather in any given area in my opinion. They can also be pretty comical sometimes when you can tell the forecasters are baffled. Reading one discussion will give you an idea of what is going on, but to really keep up with how the forecast is changing you should read them several times a day. Watch how the wording in these discussions changes and you can often get an idea of whether those rain chances are going up or down.

There are also several weather forecast models that are used by all of the agencies that you mentioned and watching these can also give you an idea of why forecasts change so often or are not accurate sometimes. For me the NWS is the way to go for weather information, they are not trying to make a profit, and although they often fight insufficient funding, they do a great job.

If you are interested in learning more about the weather forecast models, there are some pretty nice beginner tutorial videos here
http://www.stormjunkie.com/training/vidlearnfree.html

And to find some of the best free weather data on the web

http://www.stormjunkie.com/pages/wxhome/wxhome.html

http://www.stormjunkie.com/qcklnk.php

Hope that helps some :~)

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

How can I support developing countries for free?
Iˇd like to help to the developing countries, e.g. in Africa, Asia, although I haven’t money to gift them. I have heard there is also other possibility? CAn you help? I can’t go abroad to volunteer, but…

Suggestion by Phlip 🙂
i’ve been wondering that too.! ever since i went to Africa in year 4 ive had my views changed but our recent geography unit on poverty has really got me going, id like to start an organisation for simple things like water pumps but i dont think its that easy.

Suggestion by Annie
Asia had better have with the operation of forethought and seldom, and not flip out money

Suggestion by Lady
that’s really hard to do so
but I’ve found this source:
“Democratic Republic of Congo comes through the third phase of large-scale civil war and genocide mainly in Goma area (North Kivu). We have contacted local organization ADECOP, engaged forthe maintenance of peace, development of awareness and education, fighting against violent crime and sexual violence. Within the newly created Project Poetry Helps to Needs in the Congo a public literary reading and discussion Is poetry solidar? was introduced, and this way we will continue with further public events at the turn of March and April. Contacting civic associations and organizations in the Czech Republic operating in the African environment in the future we may provide support for this project, which aims to not only get money for humanitarian aid from voluntary admission to literary reading and discussion (in the spirit of Poesia e solidarietà, central motta of Trieste Youth Forum 2008). We encourage local citizens and young people through media, radio, periodicals, we prepare student exchange, workshops and working in the territory of both countries.

The main way how we support the cultural diversity and yet the similarity, is provided by a magazine platform in which response is discovered by citizens (not only) of both countries. We would also organize an international literary competition and promote education through czech project Talnet, running in the Czech Republic for more than 6 years. Crucial role in this project a grant policy, the promotion of cultural objects and cooperation with other organizations such as Platform2 or Friends of the Congo play.

Our main area of work, Lacadalet Magazine, has started to run in March of this year (the readings were held in December 2008 for the first time), and now our growing readership also introduces itself by our sites because we believe not only Czech-Congo relationships could be mirrored by our platform. We host every issue international young writer, whose works are connected to some problem in one or the other coutry introduced in the current issue.

Firstly, our magazine hadn’t stable internet form, but the last weeks magazine is fully electronized (it was more like correspondence before) and the selection blog is running where redactors choose the works published in the issue. But no work is lost and anybody could read anything we get, because awareness isn’t bordered by “quality” or “topic”. We would like to encourage readers to write also, to think about the meanings of authors published and we would like to support also electronical discussion.

We have wide readership around the globe – Brazil, Australia, Russia, Tanzania, Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, Spain,… our magazine provides connection and learning from each other. We can show how the literature bring us to one ship and how we become friend unless we have the same social background, life experience and language. Language is typically czech and French, translated into english and texts are always published in the original language with translation.

Not only literature – we speak out also about our language in the general, about our culture in the general (we share songs, news, spirit) – not only poetry, but mainly poetry connects us. We are displaced friends who believe in each other.

I’m student of highschool and this project I started on my own half year ago. I know that people are needed to success and I know that my goal – student exchange and competition – is too far for me now. But; I never let something gone unless doing my best. Now I think the number involved in the program I started as one person, is great. Please visit our sites at least. I hope that this competition will inform at least about our action and that we are there for you.”

It was from the sites of Global Junior Challenge and if I understand well, you can enter the redaction or make your network and help the Congolese by cultural development and also the sites reach some money when somebody visit them (ads probably?) yes, I think this way you can help for free 😉

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