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The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

climate.gov

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Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#81

Post by timschmidt »

ttepasse wrote: post #75
timschmidt wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem isn't remembering the scale, it's that Fahrenheit offers me double the effective resolution and descriptive accuracy without awkward decimal points in the numbers used. I like my room at 73F, not 72F or 74F, and I can feel the difference. That's 22.77C. :-/

My main observation in temperature scale and imperial lengths discussions om the Internet is that Americans seem to have a strange aversion against fractional parts of numbers, as if those were irrational. (On the other hand a lot of Americans consume fava beans.)

Au contraire base 12 measurement is _all about the fractions_. 12 can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, and 6. Metric gets 5 and 2. By that measure it's y'all that are afraid of the small numbers.

US units are pinned to Metric standards anyway. We're just using the most creative ratios. :)

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#82

Post by asciimov »

tremon wrote: post #48
artursapek wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Celsius is useful if you're a beaker of water. Fahrenheit is useful if you're a human.

What significance does 0°F have to a human?

0°F was the outside temperature with 40 mph winds (60mph gusts) the time I had to venture to the middle of an empty field to break the ice on water tank with a hatchet so cows could get water.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#83

Post by mistrial9 »

__egb__ wrote: post #21
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has been touted around before, but what does the military do? I assume they are extremely aware of their supply chain and would not want to source weather from a commercial entity. Will NORAD start doing clandestine weather modelling to be able to plan troop/ship movements?

The Navy already does forecasting for the DoD. They have their own computing facility (called Fleet Numerical) in California and run their own models.

Isn't it true that open methods beat closed expensive methods many times.. in the case of weather prediction, it is trivial to benchmark predictions.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#84

Post by mistrial9 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #70
tomjakubowski wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious if they use NWS weather station data or if they collect their own.

It is pretty much an independent system. There are only a handful of organizations on the planet operating an independent global weather model. For historical reasons the US operates two of them. A good argument can be made that the European model is better than either, so it might make sense for the US to combine some of those global weather model resources.

unless "all private except certain secure friends" is not in the spirit of US Federal Science?

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#85

Post by righthand »

hallway_monitor wrote: post #67
stevenbedrick wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m here to say that the cuts to the NSF, NIH, DoE (both energy and education) and IRS are not overhyped at all; if anything they are badly underhyped. What is overhyped is the actual “savings” that they are producing with all of this.

What would you cut? I don’t know what I would, but I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now. I know there’s a lot of hysteria around this, but I’m still at the place where I can be optimistic that the US will come out ahead. At least they’re doing something besides spending more money and acting like everything‘s OK. From a long-term financial stabil…

> but I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now.

Do you have proof of this? Otherwise you are spreading propaganda and lies. “We need to cut stuff because the party I support says so” isn’t proof of a financial apocalypse and is only fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s the very hysteria lying in which you refer.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#86

Post by p_j_w »

hallway_monitor wrote: post #67
stevenbedrick wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m here to say that the cuts to the NSF, NIH, DoE (both energy and education) and IRS are not overhyped at all; if anything they are badly underhyped. What is overhyped is the actual “savings” that they are producing with all of this.

What would you cut? I don’t know what I would, but I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now. I know there’s a lot of hysteria around this, but I’m still at the place where I can be optimistic that the US will come out ahead. At least they’re doing something besides spending more money and acting like everything‘s OK. From a long-term financial stabil…

> I do know that the United States is heading for a financial apocalypse unless drastic measures are taken now.

Asserted without evidence, dismissed without evidence.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#87

Post by reaperducer »

phkahler wrote: post #13
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Yeah it'll be interesting if they privatize weather forecasting in the US. I'll be looking for European forecasts of US weather... It's handy info, but I'm not gonna subscribe to see if I need a coat or umbrella.

Yeah it'll be interesting if they privatize weather forecasting in the US

FWIW, there is already a massive industry of private weather forecasting.

I know personally, or have met, at least six fully trained meteorologists who don't work for the government. Most are in the oil industry, but one is in aquaculture, and another in shipping.

Most big energy, aviation, and logistics companies employ meteorologists. Probably other industries, too.

That said, the loss of the NWS would be a national tragedy, and one of the worst mistakes in American government history.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#88

Post by ficklepickle »

comrade1234 wrote: post #79
a3w wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Minus 33 (the temp the parent referenced) is about the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit. I’m an American that lives in Europe but travels to MN/WI for family and noticed that convergence.

Incorrect. You are thinking of -40.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#89

Post by bgnn »

ttepasse wrote: post #75
timschmidt wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem isn't remembering the scale, it's that Fahrenheit offers me double the effective resolution and descriptive accuracy without awkward decimal points in the numbers used. I like my room at 73F, not 72F or 74F, and I can feel the difference. That's 22.77C. :-/

My main observation in temperature scale and imperial lengths discussions om the Internet is that Americans seem to have a strange aversion against fractional parts of numbers, as if those were irrational. (On the other hand a lot of Americans consume fava beans.)

Most temperature sensors are accurate to 0.1C. Most weather forecast is 0.5C resolution. So yeah only explanation to Americans behavior is an aversion against fractional numbers as you said.

Re: The polar vortex is hitting the brakes

#90

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

comrade1234 wrote: post #79
a3w wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Minus 33 (the temp the parent referenced) is about the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit. I’m an American that lives in Europe but travels to MN/WI for family and noticed that convergence.

-40 is the actual convergence point.
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