The Weather Notebook: Data Flow on TV

Data Flow on TV
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Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. Montana Producer Barrett Golding has been following the weather data stream as it flows toward becoming your daily forecast. It started at one of the thousands of weather observation points.

PB: "We know exactly what happened here in the last 24 hours."

People like Paul Brown take daily readings of temperature, wind, pressure and precipitation:

"I'll call a US weather service in Great Falls and I'll call the 2 TV stations."

"Hi, Paul, what have we got today? 25 for the max, OK."

"I'm Dennis Carlson and we're here at Fox 7 television in Bozeman. It's not just a matter of convenience. Sometimes, it can be life or death. Whether it's somebody going out in the backcountry skiing or snowmobiling or whatever. It's someone maybe taking a roadtrip and going over Homestate Pass or the Bozeman Hill, you want to be able to tell him, whether the weather is going to be good or not. The weather information we get is from the National Weather Service in Great Falls and I know they've got really nice technology, real nice computers. What they all are - how those guys do it up there, you've got me."

"...as we look at the weather map, we see a cold front with a forecast of subzero temperatures. With tomorrow's forecast for continued mild. Continued mild?..."

"Sometimes they do get it wrong. Sometimes they do get it right. So what I try to do is I take the information the National Weather Service gives me and I look outside, basically, and say, ok, do these two match up. And if they don't, then I go with what I see. So, you kind of have to fudge it sometimes.'

Tomorrow, the regional branch of the National Weather Service. The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive.