#1

 This week I decided to choose the severe storms that hit the southern United States this past week, specifically the deadly EF-4 Tornado that went through Alabama. Looking at the historical data from Weather.com and almanac.com weather it shows no rain or storms on the forecast for Lee county Alabama from the 25th of February to the 3rd of March. This is obviously false since a large front passed over the area, on Sunday the 3rd, this front caused several tornado’s, not only in Alabama but also Georgia and Florida. A tornado watch was issued 90 minutes before the deadly EF-4 touched down and a tornado warning was issued about 20 minutes before the touchdown. For those who do not know, a watch is issued when the potential for a tornado is possible and a warning when either a funnel cloud or the tornado itself has been confirmed. The tornado was .87 miles wide and travelled around 24 miles before dissipating, taking the lives of 24 people. The watch/warning system gave ample warning for people to seek shelter, but unfortunately due to the power of the tornado, not even a shelter could have prevented some of the deaths, since most of the homes were flattened by the storm. Overall I would say the forecast was not remotely accurate to what actually happened in Lee County, Alabama. Judging by the fact that the two websites were showing no rain or storms either Saturday or Sunday when the storm moved in. There were obviously drastic changes to the forecast than what was reported.

#2

I saw that somebody already covered Alabama but I’ll piggy back off of that post since I’m in Northern Alabama/Southern Tennessee. We had some pretty bad weather over the weekend, however, the forecast didn’t call for that much rain. We were surprised. The past couple of days have not been bad, though, and the forecast has been more accurate. They are calling for rain starting again on Friday, however. Hopefully it is not too bad. Right now we have clear skies and full sun, although it is still pretty cold out (in the lower 30’s) and we have a freeze warning starting at 6pm and ending tomorrow morning. My Grandmother is in the area visiting from Missouri, however, and she says the weather there has been much colder than it is here.

I enjoyed the content this week. It was interesting learning about the different types of satellites. I have taken a few different astronomy classes and never learned about these. Also, I was curious about numerical weather prediction. The lesson states that numerical weather predictions are less accurate near a country’s border due to the fact that it uses data from weather stations all around a country. Although weather stations are not evenly distributed, I still don’t understand why they would be less accurate near a border than in the center of a country. Maybe they would be more accurate if using weather stations from bordering countries as well? Interesting, and something to think about. I will look in the text and research this this week.

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