 Poster: A snowHead
|
carled, given that you seem to know something about all these different weather charts ect, can you tell me if there is a chart for Eastern Europe? I'm after one for a ski resort called Bansko in Bulgaria.
Please and thank you. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
E.g. is there a GFS or similar for bansko?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
For when?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
bh1, the week commencing 27th Jan. I'm not too bothered about the date at this stage but whether or not the GFS type charts also cover/include Bansko or Bulgaria.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
carled, cheers. Much appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
carled, remind me again; what indicates precipitation on the GFS?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The lower line. The scale is on the rhs, in mm of rainfall.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
skanky, cheers for that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
carled, skanky, I have almost got my head round these GFS charts and what means what, but could you please clarify what the thick blue, red and grey lines mean as I don't speak whatever language the key is in on the top right corner of the chart.
Please and thank you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Hornster, red is the thirty year average (either 61-90 or 71-00 I can never remember who's using what these days, I think the US are using the latter), blue is the control run which is the operational run (the run that the appears on the released charts) and the grey is the average value for all of the ensemble runs combined (ignore it if there's a wide variance, and only more useful if there's some sort of grouping).
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
skanky, does it only work for Europe, tried to put Whistler figures in and didnt work? What altitude does 850hPa roightly equate too as weel?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
brian
brian
Guest
|
tomski01,
850 hPa is usually round about 1500m.
This is the area wetterzentrale covers, you'll probably be able to get a chart like that for Whistler on some US weather site though, I'll have a look ....
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Again, thanks for all your guys help. I will make a weather man yet!! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Hornster, don't the temps look a bit high? (With my very limited knowledge....)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
Hornster, looks like a snow line of between 1500m & 1800m from 20th on the operational run. Not a huge amount of confidence, but not absolutely wild. Long way ahead though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
cathy, I agree, the temps are looking the best. Do-able but not ideal.
skanky, thanks for the extra data. I know that the 20th is still a way off in weather terms but I was just looking for some confirmation that my new found weather reading skills are coming along.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
That chart is a bit different to the Alpine charts. The average 850hpa temp. for this time of year is 0C in say La Plagne, but on that one it's -2C. So though the temperature line is consistently above average, it is only hovering around the 2C line. Not cold (not great for low resorts), but I doubt that disastrous? How high is Bansko?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
The top of the mountain is around the 2600m mark, the bottom is around 2000m and the resort is around 1200m. What is the significance of that when interpretting the Bansko GFS ensembles?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hornster, temperature difference really. I was curious really. It shows that (if the ensemble is correct) it will probably snow for the whole ski area, but could well rain in the resort. Normally it would be sleeting/snowing in the resort by that average line.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
tomski01, you could have picked an easy one. 
I've never found spaghetti plots easy to read, so tend to shy away from them, thus there may be a few errors in this description.
dam stands for decametres (10s of metres). The chart basically shows the thickness in tens of metres of the air mass between 1000hpa (roughly the surface) and 500hpa (roughly 5000m up). I say roughly because obviously the height of 500hpa depends on the thickness, and the sea level pressure. You can get thickness charts for other height paramters (1000-850hpa is good for snow forecasting). You will also see 500hpa thickness in the charts shown at Wetterzentrale (thickness is the colour part of the chart).
Thickness is a measure of the *average* temperature of the air at that point, between the two heights shown. Thinner air (lower values) is cooler than thicker air (higher values). The 522dam line is a good boundary point for snow *at sea level* as a general rule of thumb.
If you plot thickness lines as contour maps, you can see fronts where they are clustered together (like steep slopes on a map).
This chart shows the indication of the 534 and 594 dam lines - though as it's winter the 594 dam line is off the bottom of the map except maybe that pool in the Atlantic though that might be a pool of 534dam, I'm not sure.
The different lines are (like the ensemble charts) output from different runs, showing the differences between them. The black is the control run (operational I think), which looks to be an outlier to me as the main clump of them seem to cluster around the green run. As I say though, I'm not great with these.
Does that make sense?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
skanky, er, not really...think i may have bitten off more than i can chew here!
good try tho
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
tomski01, you did jump in at the deep end somewhat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
brian
brian
Guest
|
tomski01, I'll have a stab ....
The "thickness" value quoted is the height difference between the points in the atmosphere where the pressure is measured at particular values.
So, in your example above, there are 534 decametres (ie. 5340m) between the point where pressure is 1000 hPa and the point where pressure is 500 hPa.
The reason it's widely quoted is that thickness is easy to measure and is directly proportional to the average temperature of the air between those points.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
