Mesoscale Convective System. A complex of thunderstorms which becomes organized on a scale larger than the individual thunderstorms, and normally persists for several hours or more.

Here's a good idea, but it's not working at the moment.

View the Area Forecast Discussion for the Toledo area.

On that discussion page, note how some terms are links to a glossary. Problem is, at least for me, those links don't work. I think they are using the wrong URL.

Example from the discussion page:

.MARINE...
UPDATED TO START THE SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR AVON POINT WEST IMMEDIATELY.

The broken URL being used is this:
http://forecast.weather.gov/glossary.php?word=SMALL%20CRAFT%20ADVISORY

But this URL works:
http://w1.weather.gov/glossary/index.php?word=SMALL+CRAFT+ADVISORY

The statements produced by the National Weather Service are always in all-caps. It's hard to read. I convert the text to lower case by using http://convertcase.net

Does a technical reason exist for the NWS to use all-caps? It is because of all the acronyms and proper nouns for locations? Is it a leftover function from the old teletype days?

I assume that one role of the media is to take the technical information from the NWS and make it digestible for the public. The media is the middleman.

The weather information disseminated by the media is too simplistic for me.

I like reading the convective outlooks and mesoscale discussions produced by the Storm Prediction Center and the area forecast discussions produced by the Cleveland National Weather Service.

But sometimes, the information produced by the NWS can be too technical, complicated, and verbose for me.

The NWS should not change their tactics, except for that all-caps thing. I would prefer to have too much technical information than a small amount of simple information.

What's needed is a happy medium, and that's what JustaSooner provides. Valuable, technical, and interesting information that's explained well enough to be understood.

Some methods to inform the public can be implemented with a computer program running in the background, but a human interpreter is tough to replace.

I would like:

weather Web app not a native app
minimal and simply implemented
responsive design to function well on all screens
no silly-ass images or icons.
- if the forecast text says "mostly sunny" then I don't need an image of a sun.
- the icons waste space
- if a person does not have the time to read the text, and therefore needs cute icons, then this app is not intended for that person.
36-hour forecast
Extended forecast
weather radar images
satellite cloud cover image
current weather conditions at area airports
area forecast discussion
hazardous outlook statements
map of watches, warnings, advisories, and special statements
local storm reports
maybe radar image of estimated rainfall
SPC info:
- mesoscale discussions
- watch box info
- convective outlooks
alerts

Does a Web or native app exist like that?

Much of the information can be culled from using the XML feeds produced by the NWS, but of course, the information will be technical.

Sample Home Page One

If too lines per row, 25 chars max with larger font and 35 chars max with smaller font per row for smartphone in portrait mode.

No watches or warnings, no hazardous outlooks, and no mesoscale discussions

Toledo Wx 12:15 pm 16Jun2013

Partly Cloudy 74 11:52am -->

Radar -->

7-day Forecast 10:25am -->

Forecast Discussion 9:42am -->

Convective Outlook -->

No Hazardous Weather -->

More Radar and Map Images -->

Toledo Metcalf and Suburban Airports Wx -->

NWS Date and Time Formats

hazardous weather outlook
national weather service cleveland oh
436 am edt thu jun 20 2013

mesoscale discussion 1054
nws storm prediction center norman ok
1150 pm cdt wed jun 12 2013

urgent - immediate broadcast requested
severe thunderstorm watch number 300
nws storm prediction center norman ok
400 pm cdt wed jun 12 2013

area forecast discussion...updated
national weather service cleveland oh
651 pm edt thu jun 20 2013

#weatherapp - #programming - #design - #jquery - #javascript - #toledo - #weather - #blog_jr

By JR - 888 words
created: Jun 04, 2013 - updated: Mar 03, 2014
source - versions - backlinks

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