Chance of Snow, But How Come They Never Know How Much?
By Michael Frank, Adventure Journal on January 13th, 2012
Weather forecasters suck at guestimating snowfall amounts. What good is a forecast of “…6-12 inches or more of snow?” Part of the problem, according to NASA, is with interpreting the water content of snow as it’s being measured via satellite. Knowing how “wet” a snowflake is allows scientists to measure overall water content and how it will accumulate. So NASA is going to measure snowfall in the air over Ontario this winter, both via its DC-8 airborne science laboratory and from space. The goal is to make future satellite readings more accurate — but we won’t know if they’ve succeeded until 2014, when a range of new satellites launch that will be able to measure not just snow volume, but snowflake shapes, because that helps gauge their water content.
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137521577/snow-delay-at-the-airport-blame-planes-and-clouds interesting reading!
Let’s hope they figure something out soon. Our ridiculous forecast for the mtns around Missoula is 4 to 8 FEET. Quite a range. I’m predicting 6 inches.
I think it’s not just the weather forecasters who suck, it’s the mountain resorts that not only ” misinterpret” the forecast but also misuse the information with their false statements: “It’s snowing ! Come over !” You show up , and it’s wet snow mixed with rain…I wonder if it can be a good legal case to sue a ski resort based on ” false advertising/mass manipulation/misuse of information”…