GE2640 -- Weather forecasting tools
1. Surface Conditions; trends at local stations
Meteograms for major cities: see AMS website
Duluth upwind
Minneapolis upwind
2. Climatology
What are the normal high/low temperatures, precip?
Climate of the UP - NWS Marquette
3. Radar data
Local UP radar - MQT NWS thru Intellicast
Regional Radar Movie - Duluth composite thru Intellicast
Canadian Radar - Thunder Bay, Winnipeg (can be useful for Lake Effect snow over Lake Superior)
4. Synoptic map renditions
Unisys interactive weather maps
NOAA NWS US weather page - includes forecasts of fronts, temperatures and precip
Canadian Weather - Environment Canada weather page
5. Satellite data (for clouds) - also available through AMS website
GOES Satellite data - high temporal resolution (~15 minutes)
MODIS visible imagery over Great Lakes - useful for Lake Effect snow bands
Recent GOES satellite loop over western Great Lakes
6. Upper Air Data
Atmospheric Soundings--Univ Wyoming
7. Model calculations
RAP = Rapid Refresh (North America, hourly, T+18 hrs)
NAM = North American Mesoscale (North America, 3-hourly, T+87 hrs)
GFS = Global Forecast System (Global, 1 or 3-hourly, T+8 days)
NIU Storm Machine Forecast Soundings (ETA, MESOETA, GFS, RUC, and NGM)
differences between models Texas A & M
Models and Which to Use--Wikipedia
8. Forecasts
Forecast discussions, Marquette NWS
9. Longer range forecasts