ASK THE METEOROLOGIST
“How can you tell what weather is coming when?”
Kristen
One of the most helpful tools in weather forecasting is satellite imagery. This tells us many different things ranging from storm track, storm history, whether the system is strengthening or weakening, etc. Just looking at satellite imagery we can pinpoint where storms are and what direction winds are out of.
All of the storms that move across the globe circle around the poles in a wave-like pattern. In other words, areas of high and low pressure tend to track along the jet stream. There are two jet streams in both hemispheres – the polar jet stream and the subtropical jet stream. If you haven’t guessed the polar jet stream is in the higher latitudes of the two. The polar jet stream is what brings storms through the United States year round. The subtropical jet stream also influences our weather.
In addition to identifying storms on satellite imagery and the location of the jet stream, we also look at computer models. These models take all of the current conditions in our atmosphere and spit out graphical images of different parameters. For example, we can look at the jet stream and what it will do over the next 5-10 days. This tells us what storms are coming our way. We can also look at relative humidity at certain levels of the atmosphere to see how saturated an air mass will be. These computers can also show up precipitation, and what the model itself projects into the coming days.
There are many different ways to forecast the weather and these are just a few of the many things we look at to put your daily weather report together!
Meteorologist Alyssa Caroprese