Weather map desires
April 14, 2007 10:55 AM Subscribe
I'm hooked on animated weather maps. Help my find longer animations.
I like this one at Weather Underground but I can only get 6 frames. Is there a way to get 50 or 100? Or a zillion? I tried hacking the URL, but no luck.
I like this one at Weather Underground but I can only get 6 frames. Is there a way to get 50 or 100? Or a zillion? I tried hacking the URL, but no luck.
If you purchase a membership ($10) at Weather Underground, you can extend the animation out to 40 frames (and there might be some additional animation options exposed too).
posted by AaronRaphael at 11:52 AM on April 14, 2007
posted by AaronRaphael at 11:52 AM on April 14, 2007
Animated weather maps will only go so far because the forecast only predicts so far ahead; after a week or so it all gets too fuzzy to work out what'll happen next.
I can't download pages with big pictures on this connection so I don't know what the one in your link looks like, but Magic Seaweed has some very pretty maps of wind and sea state around the NE Atlantic and the North Sea.
posted by Lebannen at 1:11 PM on April 14, 2007
I can't download pages with big pictures on this connection so I don't know what the one in your link looks like, but Magic Seaweed has some very pretty maps of wind and sea state around the NE Atlantic and the North Sea.
posted by Lebannen at 1:11 PM on April 14, 2007
Here you go. The example you posted is radar loops, so I'm trumping that with College of DuPage's radar loops, which use 24 frames for their animation.
If you like the classic weather maps (i.e. surface and upper air charts), these loops straight from the horse's mouth are awesome. The GFS is used by the U.S. government for most global forecasting work, though if you dig around you can find the NOGAPS charts, which is what the Navy likes to use.
As far as what the poster above said, the models can work out perfectly the atmospheric states to the end of time, but these are crude parameterizations of the actual atmosphere. The computer atmosphere and the real atmosphere diverge after days or weeks, so the people that run the models simply decide a point where it's no longer very useful. With the GFS model above that's at 384 hours in the future.
posted by rolypolyman at 2:02 PM on April 14, 2007
If you like the classic weather maps (i.e. surface and upper air charts), these loops straight from the horse's mouth are awesome. The GFS is used by the U.S. government for most global forecasting work, though if you dig around you can find the NOGAPS charts, which is what the Navy likes to use.
As far as what the poster above said, the models can work out perfectly the atmospheric states to the end of time, but these are crude parameterizations of the actual atmosphere. The computer atmosphere and the real atmosphere diverge after days or weeks, so the people that run the models simply decide a point where it's no longer very useful. With the GFS model above that's at 384 hours in the future.
posted by rolypolyman at 2:02 PM on April 14, 2007
Lebannen: Animated weather maps will only go so far because the forecast only predicts so far ahead; after a week or so it all gets too fuzzy to work out what'll happen next.
This doesn't appear to apply to cccorlew's question, which appears to refer not to forecast maps, but satellite or radar loops. That is, maps made from photos of what happened in the past, so you could go back as far as you wanted, if someone would serve up the data for you.
Unfortunately, I can't suggest a solution for weather maps like these, but the Eastern US Weather Forums host animated loops of the GFS model's predictions. Go here to see these, the go out to 384 hours in the future. (You might have to be a member of the site to get these loops to work, however.)
on preview: Rolypolyman's suggestion is a good one too, but the site I've linked have -- in my opinion -- a better interface. It's the same maps, however.
posted by dseaton at 2:09 PM on April 14, 2007
This doesn't appear to apply to cccorlew's question, which appears to refer not to forecast maps, but satellite or radar loops. That is, maps made from photos of what happened in the past, so you could go back as far as you wanted, if someone would serve up the data for you.
Unfortunately, I can't suggest a solution for weather maps like these, but the Eastern US Weather Forums host animated loops of the GFS model's predictions. Go here to see these, the go out to 384 hours in the future. (You might have to be a member of the site to get these loops to work, however.)
on preview: Rolypolyman's suggestion is a good one too, but the site I've linked have -- in my opinion -- a better interface. It's the same maps, however.
posted by dseaton at 2:09 PM on April 14, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
NOAA Loops: 3, 6, 12 & 24 hours (warning: annoying Java).
posted by datacenter refugee at 11:06 AM on April 14, 2007