A Brief Tour of the Portland National Weather Service
Website: A Hunt for Buried Meteorological Treasures
Name ___________________________
PURPOSE: Familiarize you with some of the wealth of meteorological treasures to
be found using this web page. Follow the instructions and answer the questions in
bold.
THE MAIN PAGE: Press the control button while left clicking on:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/
You can also enter weather.gov/Portland in the URL address window
You will get this page:
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CURRENT CONDITIONS:
1. Click on the V of Vancouver on the map. What are the current
Temperature _________
Humidity _________
Wind Speed _________
Barometer _________
Dewpoint_________
Visibility _________
When was this data Last Update? _________
Where was the data for the current conditions obtained?
_________________________________________
Go back to http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/
Scroll down the page until you see the box with maps and images.
RADAR IMAGERY: In the large box at the bottom of the page, click on “Portland”
above the small map.
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2. Describe what you see. That is, is there strong reflectivity from rain in the air, weak
reflectivity from clouds, or nothing showing at all. Are there any orange or red colors
indicating strong reflectivity or just blues and greens for weaker reflectivity?
Click on reflectivity composite loop.
Do you see any movement of the strongest reflectivity? Does it move towards the
N, S, E or W? _________________________________________________
Go back to the main web page. Go to the bottom box and click on Langley Hill
radar.
3. How does this station compare to the Portland radar?
SATELLIET IMAGERY: Return to the main page. In the box at the bottom, click on
Satellite. Scroll down the page that appears to this menu:
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Click on the Northwestern US Visible 4km animation, and compare that to the
Northwestern US Infrared 4km animation.
4. Describe the differences between the two images.
Click on Infrared Pacific 8km.
5. What’s the striking difference between this image and the Northwestern
US Infrared image?
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WEATHER MAP: Return to the main page, to the box at the bottom of the page.
Click on weather map.
6. What kind of weather is occurring and where? (give 3 examples)
WEATHER FORECAST: Return to the main page. Click on Vancouver on the map.
7. How many days out do forecasts go? -___________________________
8. How many days out do wind forecasts go? _______________________
WEATHER DISCUSSION: Return to the main page. In the left-hand column, under
Forecasts, click on weather discussion.
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Read the discussion. There is often a lot of technical jargon. This was written by
the forecaster who prepared the forecast, discussing the meteorological
reasoning used in making the forecast. Go to the Long Term forecast discussion:
9. From what you can decipher amidst the mumbo-jumbo, does it sound like
there is any interesting weather on tap in the long term?
WEATHER OBSERVATIONS: Return to the main page. In left-hand column, under
Current Conditions, click on observations. You will get this map:
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On this map, click on each of the circled locations: AST (Astoria, OR), VUO
(Vancouver), PDX (Portland airport), and DLS (The Dalles, OR). You may use some
of this information later this term. These 3 letter abbreviations for places are used
on weather maps. You may recognize PDX- it is what you see as the destination
tags on your checked bags when you fly to Portland International airport. Each
airport has a 3 letter identifier- Sea-Tac airport in Seattle is SEA. Pearson airport,
next to Ft Vancouver, is VUO. Weather observations, which include temperature,
pressure, altimeter, wind, and sky conditions, are essential information for pilots.
10. How many days of observations are available for each location?
CLIMATE DATA: Return to the main page. In left-hand column, under Climate
select Local. You get this menu:
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Under product, select Preliminary Monthly Climate Data (CF6). Under location,
scroll down and select Vancouver. Under Timeframe select Archived data, and
December 2011, as shown above.
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What was the monthly precipitation for Vancouver in December 2011? ____________
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Was the December precipitation above or below average? _______How much? ______
13.
What was the average monthly temperature for Vancouver? How much did it vary
from Normal? ___________
WEATHER BALLOON SOUNDINGS: Return to the main menu
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/. In left-hand column, under Additional Info select
Other Useful Links. Scroll down and in lower right hand corner select Upper Air
Data (the weather balloon). The chart, called a Sounding, depicts the vertical
variations in temperature (the red line), dew point temperature (the green line),
and winds (the barbs along the right) measured by weather balloons launched
every day at 4 am and 4 pm from Salem, OR. The horizontal blue lines with the
numbers circled in red are the height above the ground in pressure instead of feet
above the ground.
14. What is going on with temperatures in the area circled in blue on the
Sounding below? That is are temperature increasing steadily, decreasing
steadily or ????
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What is the name of this feature? Is it the troposphere, tropopause, stratosphere,
stratopause ,or ???? See chapter 1 Layers in the atmosphere for a review and to help
you answer this question. _____________________________
QUANTITATIVE PRECIPITATION FORECASTS: Go back to the Other Useful Links
menu (with the weather balloon) and in the lower left hand column select
Precipitation Forecast. You will use these data in the Precipitation Log Project.
The left hand maps are forecast amounts of precipitation for 24 hour periods
from 12Z (4 am) to 12Z (4 am). For each day there are also forecast maximum and
minimum temperatures and freezing level- the height in feet above the ground
above which the temperature is below freezing the rest of the way up in the
atmosphere.
15. How far out do the forecasts go?
OTHER COOL STUFF:
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On the main page in the left hand column under Additional Info, Items of Interest,
you’ll find:
Historical Storms is a source of ideas for Case Study topics, and a good source of
information to use in Case Studies. The snowfall data is of interest to snow fans. I
use the Sun/Moon table all the time. It shows time of sunrise, sunset, moonrise,
moonset, full moon time and name, and meteor showers. Here is January’s:
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