Monday, February 12, 2007

And now for something completely different

A lighter observation to strike a balance with my previous musing, if you call it that. (You may not give these thoughts much credence either). This morning I was reading the weather forecast for Shreveport and observed something unusual. Actually, I had seen it before but never yet thought it odd. Tell me what you think.

Weather for pilots is abbreviated greatly. RA means rain and SH means showers. +RA means heavy rain and -RA means light rain. Heavy rain showers would be +SHRA. TS means thunderstorms, and right now the weather for shreveport is: TEMPO 0306 1 1/2SM +TSRA BKN007CB OVC013.

That means, between 3:00 and 6:00z (9-12pm central) the weather is forecast 1.5 miles forward visibility because of heavy thunderstorms/rain with cloud layers broken at 700 ft (cumulonimbus) and overcast at 1300ft. That seems like a valid prediction, so my ears tell me.

What struck me as odd this morning was a forecast for -TSRA. Have you ever seen such a thing as "light thunderstorms"? Neither have I. I've got to ask Glenn Carrin about this one. Or I could just drive down to Alexandria tonight. Beginning at 10pm they should experience: FM0400 16012G20KT 5SM -TSRA BKN007CB OVC015.

If such does exist

3 comments:

Jen said...

But we can have really heavy rain without thunder. Or thunder without much rain.

So there it is; I figured it out. Obviously a dumb post :)

M.R. said...

All i know is right now the weather is TDC.

(too dang cold!)

Jen said...

amen