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How would you like to be a weather observer?
You would be helping me and fellow colleagues by supplementing the official reports we receive which sometimes are few and far between. For instance, this weather situation will call for closely watching the regions where snow is changing to sleet or where freezing rain is causing dangerous icing. There are strict NWS guidelines for official spotters and we can review some of them at another time, especially when it pertains to severe weather such as thunderstorms and tornadoes. For winter storms, get yourself a good ruler-be as precise and accurate as you can- and your report will be welcome. Now, you have to try to keep emotion out of it. Many times, we hear "look how heavy the snow is falling, there must be 2 feet out there!". Nope, that won't work :-) As a rule, many of us usually drop the highest and lowest totals that are reported so no one gets carried away with trying to win the prize! If you'd like to look at the official guidelines for measuring snow: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/program_areas/snow_spotters/SnowMeasurement.pdf An acceptable method is to take at least 4 or 5 measurements in clean snow that has not drifted or melted then average it out.
Getting the information out can be done in several ways. My email will not be able to hold all the reports that might come in during a storm (and I don't know if time would permit me to look through all of them) but if you have an extraordinary or unusual event- callen@cbs.com.
The best way is to join a weather forum. There are several that I frequent and occasionally chat on. Other prominent meteorologists join these groups as well. You can read the posts for free but you'll have to register and log in to post. These groups are always welcome to new members:
http://p209.ezboard.com/btristateweather Great for the novice and weather lovers. Pro mets show up on this board too from time to time to answer questions and lend their thoughts.
http://www.easternuswx.com/bb/ Much more technical but you can really learn from many professional meteorologists, both on and off air.
http://www5.wright-weather.com/bb/ Not very active but still some good topics and lively discussions.
http://theweatherservice.com/forums/index.php?showforum=3 More technical and more national.
Thanks in advance for the help!
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