Messages

1486

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 05, 2010, 03:43:28 PM »

Please don't disappoint us...

Honestly, I haven't heard a single compliment about "Flick and a Forecast."  It just doesn't belong on The Weather Channel.

1487

Programming / Re: Tropical Update maps

« on: September 05, 2010, 03:40:59 PM »

Thank you very much for sharing!

Personally, I prefer the maps from Hugo.  There's a simplicity to them that I enjoy.  Today's 3-D maps sometimes get confusing, with strange angles and other "bells and whistles" to show off the technology, while masking the actual information in the process.

1488

Weatherscan Discussion / Re: Weatherscan Topic

« on: September 05, 2010, 03:39:20 PM »

Thanks for sharing!  I've never seen the water temperature screen on Weatherscan.  My area's Weatherscan is a tad on the basic side.

1489

Forecasting / Re: Ask The Weather Expert!

« on: September 05, 2010, 03:38:05 PM »

Worthy of a textbook!  Ever since I became interested in the weather in the late 1980s, tropical cyclones were, by far, my favorite area of study.  In fact, I would have become a meteorologist if I had... well... even the most elementary understanding of mathematics.

Thanks for the compliment!  I try my best with all these explanations to make it clear for you all who have not had advanced mathematics or physics but keep things scientifically accurate.  Math alone does wipe out about half of all incoming students in Meteorology as they don't realize how much it's needed to describe everything.

That pesky math...  To this day, I'm still a little upset that I wasn't able to pursue meteorology as a career because my math skills are utterly terrible... on a good day.  But, life goes on, I suppose.

1490

WeatherSTAR Tech Support / Re: IntelliStar 022608 Background Error

« on: September 05, 2010, 12:18:00 AM »

Oh, that does look quite bad.  I hope they can fix it for you quickly!

In the early-mid 2000s I visited Gettysburg a few times, and they have the Hannover Star.  When I was there, though, it was the XL with no degradation.  What's even more interesting is that these relatives I visited used to live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and back in the 4000 days, their Star became extremely degraded, to the point where it was almost painful to watch the Local Forecasts, seeing the Star pretty much destroy itself from the inside!  And now an even worse degradation has passed to where they lived right after Bucks County.  Maybe they're cursed?

1491

WeatherSTAR Tech Support / Re: IntelliStar 022608 Background Error

« on: September 05, 2010, 12:12:24 AM »

That's something I saw many times (sadly) with the WeatherStar 4000, but I actually never dreamed it could happen to the IntelliStar, especially so soon.

Is it only during the "Almanac" screen, or is every screen that doesn't have a map like that?

I can imagine this is even worse, actually, than the WeatherStar 4000's background degradation, since, except for the "Almanac" and "Air Quality" screens, there was usually a blue box (or three for the "Extended Forecast" covering most of the background, so most of the time you only saw the very fringes of the degradation.

1492

Hurricane Central / Re: Hurricane Earl- Storm Train

« on: September 05, 2010, 12:09:54 AM »

I'll admit it does look strange, but it actually makes sense.  Even post-tropical cyclones don't want to travel too close to the poles, and steering winds are usually accommodating.  Considering what's left of Earl is still pretty well put together, even though it's lost its tropical characteristics, this system isn't going to dissipate in the immediate future.  Most remnants of tropical systems do eventually cruise across the northern Atlantic, but it just so happens that Earl ventured farther north than many before starting its transoceanic crossing. 

1493

Programming / Re: Tropical Update maps

« on: September 04, 2010, 07:49:11 PM »

I liked the wind field maps, too - orange was tropical storm force, red was hurricane force, and white was major hurricane force.

Now I'm embarrassed... even I forgot about those maps!  Yes, I liked them, too - informative and in a simple package.

1494

Forecasting / Re: Ask The Weather Expert!

« on: September 04, 2010, 10:06:33 AM »

A tropical depression has winds of 38 mph or less, and it's not named but only assigned a number.  A tropical storm has winds ranging from 39 to 73 mph, and it's strong enough to earn a name.  Both systems have to be tropical cyclones with well-defined centers and closed circulations at the surface.  They just can't be tropical waves that are only troughs of low pressure, which are not closed in circulation.  Hope that helps!

Worthy of a textbook!  Ever since I became interested in the weather in the late 1980s, tropical cyclones were, by far, my favorite area of study.  In fact, I would have become a meteorologist if I had... well... even the most elementary understanding of mathematics.

1495

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Storm Gaston

« on: September 03, 2010, 07:51:29 AM »

How is Gaston pronounced? I've always heard it pronounced "gas-ten," but Heather pronounced it something like "Gas-tooun" earlier today...

Gaston is a French name.  gas-TON, but with the "N" half cut-off.  In other words, think of the Grey Poupon commercials and how they pronounced it.  Gaston and Poupon rhyme.

1496

Hurricane Central / Re: Tropical Storm Gaston

« on: September 02, 2010, 07:00:37 PM »

Kinda just fizzled out, didn't it?  This was surprising.  It wasn't predicted to become as strong as Danielle or Earl, but such an early death was quite unexpected.

1497

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Hurricane Earl L-Bar

« on: September 02, 2010, 03:00:00 PM »

I like it, although the top of the lower part of the L-bar gets cut off on the HD feed.

1498

General Discussion / Re: Happy 21st Birthday WeatherSTARIII!

« on: September 01, 2010, 06:39:46 PM »

Woo-hoo!  Where's the "Like" button here? 

1499

Everything Else TWC / Re: Blooper Thread

« on: August 31, 2010, 05:52:57 PM »

At 4:41 PM ET, when showing an infrared satellite of Hurricane Earl, the label on Hispaniola said "Haitii."

Well, Haiti occupies the western tip of Hispañola,

1500

General Discussion / Re: Great Commercials

« on: August 30, 2010, 08:15:23 PM »

I love the TD Bank commercials with Regis Philbin in them... "TD Bank is America's most convienent bank, and to prove that, I've been holding this door all day."

They're clever.  Kelly looks positively anorexic, though.