“Creating A Weather Forecast”
By Gannon Medwick
Friday, July 27, 2007
Creating a weather forecast involves many, many variables, and some may surprise you. Did you know that the water content of soil greatly affects air temperature?
Sunshine can heat dry soil (and the air above it) quickly. For wet soil, however, much of the daytime sun’s energy goes into evaporating the soil water instead of heating it. I considered soil moisture in my forecast for today. Since we’ve had very little rain for over a week, soils are running dry and should heat well today, so 92 is my 3-Degree Guarantee high for inland areas. (Yesterday, I forecasted 88 for a high, and the 3-Degree Guarantee almost got away from me as we hit 91. I think if I had more heavily weighted the dry soil in my forecasting process I could have gotten closer!)
So, yes, among the variables a forecaster must consider… is dirt!
Feel free to respond to this blog! I look forward to reading your comments.
Take care,
Gannon
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