Give me the "why?" of the weather
December 2, 2012 10:21 AM   Subscribe

Where can I find detailed weather analysis for Canadian cities?

I live in Montreal. I have plenty of access to instant temperature readings, and I have a pretty good sense of the forecast thanks to Weather Underground. I have the "what?" of the weather. What I'm missing is the "how?" and the "why?". Is there a service that will tell me about the big picture weather patterns currently going on, and how they're affecting the smaller scale picture here at home? I'm looking for something like what the weatherman on TV does, but with a bit more science behind it. Searching Environment Canada doesn't seem to help much.
posted by awenner to Science & Nature (1 answer total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: In the US, every National Weather Service office provides a detailed forecast discussion a few times a day for their local area. If Environment Canada doesn't do the same, then you might try reading the nearest US forecast discussions, e.g., Burlington, VT. It won't give you precisely what's happening in Montreal, but most of the large-scale weather patterns they talk about will be relevant. The discussions are very technical, so there's a lot you can learn from them even if they aren't discussing your exact city.

You'll probably need to have some detailed weather maps to fully understand what the forecast discussion is talking about. For that I recommend the (sorry, US-centered again) NWS Mesoscale Analysis page. Environment Canada also has a few surface and upper air charts that are more centered on Canada, but doesn't have quite the same range of derived products (that I can see).
posted by kiltedtaco at 11:38 AM on December 2, 2012 [1 favorite]


« Older Christmas choral music on Spotify   |   Why, Santa, WHY? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.