weatherwiz

This is such great information, thank you! I'm on pace to graduate next fall so I'm really starting to think harder about my options. Initially, I didn't have a major interest in broadcasting, however, after taking a broadcast course last year and this year as well I really enjoy it. I don't know though if I could get into broadcast...I don't really have a good voice for TV and some words I struggle to pronounce clearly. Perhaps this is me just being self-conscious b/c when I post my videos and such they seem to get good reviews. My current thinking is perhaps apply for TV jobs (I am willing to move anywhere) and after a period of time if I don't get anything I'll get right into masters. If I do land a job, however, I will still pursue masters and do it online. As for masters though I really like researching and am big into severe weather. I have several projects I've started over the years but I don't have the time now to really further those projects. I love studying patterns and one thing I want to do (and I want to do this for senior research) is explore the importance of the upper-level jet placement and severe weather in the northeast. I also have a strong interest on long-range forecasting and how the stratosphere influences the stratosphere. I guess my dream ideal job would be like working somewhere where you just compose research and write papers and such. Not sure if something like that exists but its something to explore.

Ever since downloading the new bufkit release (Bufkit 17) I've had nothing but problems. Is anyone else having issues? This is really beginning to upset me. I never really used bufget before so I used to get profiles the more time consuming way. I use the PSU bufkit model site. I hover over the location I want to view bufkit data for, then I right click, hit save as and save it in the data folder then bufget would open, I would click bufkit and go to the location, click on it and boom...I have the data for whatever run I saved. Well that doesn't seem to work now...when I do this process and open the download link when I save the profile, the location opens up in bufkit but if I click another location and go back to the one I saved its not current and its some old data. I know bufget is easier so I just tried inputting the link for NAM data for WTBY (Waterbury, CT) using the following line: ftp://ftp.meteo.psu.edu/pub/bufkit/NAM/nam_wtby.buf I click get profiles, everything runs correctly and when I click bufkit and then click on WTBY its not current data SO FRUSTRATING

That would be awesome!! I really appreciate this information and advice! I always wanted to go for my masters and I even considered doctorate but I've re-thought the doctorate, at least for now. As far as masters is concerned, how math intensive is a masters program? Calculus was such a struggle and doing anything more math intensive might kill me lol.

yup...typical sunday we do work then have fun

Was great here...spent a few hours suntanning. Didn't apply sunscreen so hopefully there was no burnage in the sensitive spots

Thanks alot for the input! Once I get some free time I will begin and look into Python. Unfortunately, I do need MATLAb to graduate. I need to use MATLAB for the Oceanography course I'm in now and will use it for Remote Sensing in the Spring, and finally Instrumentation next Fall. It just really sucks b/c we're not provided with much of a background and are just thrown into this and basically told do it. Before it was a requirement for the program, past students who took it all ended up with incompletes. It would be so awesome and beneficial if we were actually taught and taught well.

Wasn't sure which forum was appropriate for this topic but I'm looking for some input/advice from others who have experience in MATLAB and I'm also curious as to what sort of background with regards to courses you may have taken which helped prepare you to understand MATLAB and how to write programs. At my school, as part of the new meteorology program which was revamped a few years back, a course called Oceanography is now a required course for the program. As part of this course we use MATLAB during lab assignments. Outside of I believe Calc II and Physics II, the pre-req for the course is a computer programming class which involves writing codes using java script or a Visual Basic course. I took the course which involved the java script my first semester and it was total hell. I never like to complain about teachers or professors but that was my worst experience ever. We did hardly no programming during class and would just go over PP slides which talked about things, gave definitions, and the background behind them (examples include for loops, while loops, if then statements, etc). What made maters worse was the homeworks...nearly impossible for us not having any experience with programming. When myself and several students went to the tutoring center they couldn't believe the difficulty of these assignments and said they didn't come across this level of work until their like 5th level of programming. Virtually, the class offered no value of preparation for moving forward with any type of programming classes. In Oceanography, our first major assignment is to construct a calculator which will return surface ocean flux values when a user inputs a density value. There was no guidance given for his except just go and do it. I know there are such books as MATLAB for dummies and such but truthfully I've never had a tremendous amount of success with those books. For anyone who has MATLAB experience and perhaps struggled greatly with it what options approaches did you take to really understand programming and how to just write codes and such with no problem?

Lol at complaining about meager dewpoints only in the 60's

Thanks for the information! This was quite informative. In the meantime, I looked back at what I posted and then took a harder look into the current upper air look and the forecast and I think in my head I was thinking of +PNA becoming established but obviously that isn't the case. I sort of classified the PNA as "neutral" in my post and then explained with ridging building into the GoA this is an indicator of a more -PNA state and the amplification of a trough across the west further strengthens this case which is even further strengthened by building heights in the east. It would be really awesome if someone who was super smart could break down the PNA into different regions and such...sort of similar to what RaleighWx did several years back with regards to the NAO. Like you said, the PNA region is so massive that you have to look at it more than just positive and negative. If the index can be broken down further you might be able to gather a stronger correlation to certain patterns and this includes exploring orientations of the troughs/ridges

probably will be equivalent to whatever the specific heat of blood is

Was just working on a post and I noticed that according to this the PNA is slightly negative. However, looking at the upper air pattern which is currently in place that is anything reflective of this state. Is it b/c the PNA signal is rather weak right now? What is the driver than behind the current upper air configuration?

Just found something...the specific heat for dry air at SLP is 1000 J/KG. so would I just do du = (1000 J/KG) (10C)? That seems way too easy for this type of problem

If you're computing the specific energy change (J/KG) for the heating of dry air at a constant volume from 0C to 10C would I use one of the forms of the 1st law of thermodynamics? I'm a little confused in how to start this. I was thinking of using w = integral from a 1 to a 2 of p da (a = alpha) or maybe something involving dh/dT since I can equal that to cv and my final equation would be du = cvdT? my dT would be 10C but not sure what I would use as a number for "constant volume

Getting back to this topic there are a few things I've noticed and hopefully this semester I can get the time to really explore things further but attached are a bufkit profile sounding for Waterbury, CT from the 12z/13 runs of the GFS and NAM. I've noticed (and this seems to be a constant across the country) but the GFS always seems to suggest much stronger and well-mixed boundary layers than the NAM does. Like here the GFS looks to be well-mixed up past 5000' while the NAM is below 1000'. Also, quite the differences with regards to temperature...21C as opposed to 28C

Curious...when you have a situation such as tomorrow where one model (in this case the GFS) is several degrees warmer than another model (in this case the NAM)? Looking at bufkit soundings for Waterbury, CT it looks like the GFS is mixing much higher than the NAM is tomorrow which would explain the warmer sfc temps from the GFS. What are some signals/clues anyone who forecasts highs/lows looks at which may guide which direction to go? I was looking at projected cloud cover, direction/intensity of sfc winds, temps at 925mb and 850mb.