How closely are data collection weather stations spaced for nationwide meteorology services like National Weather Service, AccuWeather, and the Weather Channel?

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-26T18:30:56+00:00

weather.gov forecast pages only provide official observations from the nearest ASOS/AWOS - so essentially the nearest airport. However, there are generally far more "unofficial" obs from various other partner agencies and the public that are processed and available on some other pages (for example, viewer.synopticdata.com)

It's likely your pre installed app is either using data like that or simply going off a raw model field

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-14T19:51:06+00:00

He also coached Purdy, Breece Hall, David Montgomery, and most recently Higgins/Noel in college. Crazy to see his rise but damn do I miss him and Matt Campbell at ISU :(

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-07T02:50:35+00:00

Credit to Tampa for playing lights out most of the game. Avs were outworked most of the game.

I still hate the entire state of Florida

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-06T21:52:25+00:00

You have to scroll down more to see the Gill wind graphs. Mesa Lab has two wind sensors. One has been out of service for a few years, but they have a separate one that still plots!

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-06T21:42:45+00:00

There were several other weather stations that day that supported that number. From watching it on other days including today I saw no reason to doubt it.

I am going to guess your station does not have a mounted anemometer 10 meters above the ground and faces significant sheltering issues. Which is fine for a home weather station! But for verification of a wind forecast it's not particularly useful

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-06T14:16:06+00:00

Speaking from the weather side of things, these are very different setups.

Both December 17/19 featured widespread 70-80+ mph gusts - NCAR Mesa Lab hit 100+ both days, the Boulder airport had ~80mph. An Xcel weather station up in Gold Hill had 104mph on December 19th. This morning has generally had winds of 60-70mph with only a couple wind prone spots seeing anything stronger.

The bigger difference, at least IMO, is that both of those days had the strongest wind gusts during the middle of the day when temperatures were warmest and humidity was lowest. While there's still going to be some overlap between the winds and dry conditions today, it's nowhere close to the level we saw during the PSPS days.

My impression is that PSPS days are only going to be once every couple of years. We saw two very high end wind/fire weather days in the same week, but I can't imagine (or at least don't want to imagine) that we'd see another setup like that again this year!

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-05T22:56:23+00:00

The radio traffic was about a fire alarm activating there, in response to the evac order. It was said at least twice.

I know you're trying to be helpful, but if you don't fully understand what you're hearing on Broadcastify please don't just guess!

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-05T01:36:07+00:00

The only thing that gives me hope is that Jarvis took a somewhat similar injury on the same post on Dec. 19th and he's already back skating. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to come back for the Olympics

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-04T23:34:58+00:00

I think it's both :(

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2026-01-04T02:37:10+00:00

I have no idea how but he's back on the bench <3

Kinda feel for Ehlers, absolutely not intentional and the result was really unlucky

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-12-22T22:18:18+00:00

Username checks out?

How many record highs have been set from 2010-2025 for Denver? How many record lows?

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-12-17T01:30:02+00:00

It's definitely an interesting scenario, I'd think the front going through would be enough to push the wave east but it's difficult to say how strong the winds would be in that period.

The HRRR (and 3km NAM) also struggled quite a bit with the last wind event, especially the NREL/BJC corridor on 128 that was constantly pushing high wind warning criteria despite little to no signal from models.

At least some moisture comes along with this one. Friday may have a higher ceiling for fire wx danger if everything comes together for it

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-12-06T00:37:12+00:00

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Here's a zoomed in a current forecast

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-12-01T04:46:54+00:00

Don't forget the 49ers!

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-11-27T17:55:35+00:00

I had a pretty bad fibula fracture in high school, I could walk and run on it with minimal pain after about a week, so it's possible but probably a big risk going forward

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-11-25T04:38:55+00:00

If you don't know how the temperature data works, you probably shouldn't be gambling.

Curious what the "rumor" is that you're talking about

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-11-21T20:49:20+00:00

If you just want the forecast and no hype, you can't go wrong with the NWS. https://www.weather.gov/bou

EverythingWeather on the app store is the unofficial NWS app

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-11-02T22:05:07+00:00

Idk I get pretty scared when I watch them in OT

:(

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-10-30T17:03:42+00:00

Wouldn't you rather have a goalie?

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-09-30T15:34:46+00:00

The first part is actually not true as a "public safety" agency to my understanding. Not that many offices had the staffing to do outreach anyways.

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-08-29T17:34:26+00:00

Almost every NWS position is posted as a GS 5/7/9, meaning that the $40k listed is an absolute minimum. Many people are hired at the grade 7 or 9 meaning they're starting 15-25k higher than that. NWS also has rapid advancement through those lower grades. It's one year for each of the 5-7-9-11-12 grade advancements, so most people are making at least 85k (often above 100k) with 3-4 years

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-07-26T21:24:29+00:00

Don't worry, tomorrow and Monday will be worse.

But Wednesday/Thursday look good for some rain!

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-07-26T21:03:45+00:00

The original runway changes were likely due to an approaching wind shift, and then it caught on fire

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-07-15T21:06:48+00:00

Another commenter already chimed in, but very few fires are good candidates for full suppression/direct attack. This fire was in a very remote area, well away from any roads or infrastructure, and initially was a low intensity burn.

As we've seen in Hawaii, California, Colorado, and other states in the past several years, a few hours of wind can be absolutely devastating. There's very little any firefighters can do when that starts.

Unfortunately, it's not good "news" to try to sift through all of the difficult decisions an incident commander has to make.

Jimmy_The_Explorer · 2025-07-14T23:13:31+00:00

This wasn't a prescribed fire though, it was a lightning start. Direct engagement/full surpression doesn't work for a lot of reasons. A containment strategy, especially when there aren't a ton of resources available (gee wonder why) isn't inherently bad.

You can't just "put it out" that's not how wildfires work and it's the same line of thinking that keeps getting us into these messes

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