WHERE does the Weather Channel get this information????

[peteywheatstraw]

I've noticed now for the past several months that the Weather Channel, both on TV and online, provides specific weather conditions (temperature, pressure, wind, etc) for local small towns which have NO weather stations to my knowledge. I'm pretty well versed on all the reporting weather stations, NWS and otherwise, in my area and I can't figure out from what sources they are getting this info. from. I even thought that maybe these spot location readings are really just interpolations from existing, larger stations but I was able to rule that out rather quickly.

Does anyone out there know something about this?

[senorpepr]

I believe they are getting information from personal weather stations.

I know that's how wunderground does it...

[peteywheatstraw]

Hi. senorpepr. Yes, I thought of this possibility and that might be it. However, I cross referenced some of these particular locations with my own master list of local weather stations in my area - all known amateur weather stations, (including but not limited to those in MADIS http://madis.noaa.gov/mesonet_providers.htm)
...CWOP (Citizen's Weather Observing Program*), Mesonet, AWS Schools, USGS Rain Gauge spots..you name it. Like I said, I know pratically all of the automated weather stations in my area, and I'm still wondering where they get this info. from.

*All WUnderground Personal Stations fall into this category.

[WindRunner]

IIRC - it's been so long since I watched TWC - their obs for my town (Warrenton, VA) come from nearby KCJR (Culpeper, VA), and I believe they state so somewhere in the "local on the 8s" screen. Of course, this format could have changed over the past year or so, so don't take my word for it, but I believe that is how it used to be done.

[burtonf]

It's INTERPOLATED data, folks. Their data provider WSI, who (with Landmark) owns TWC, just launched a new "product" last year that's been quite a hot topic of debate. These are VIRTUAL weather stations -- there is no data being collected at these exact locations, certainly not from government spec equipment.

We use the same system here in Austin and, just this week, noted some of these "obs" as much as 10 degrees warmer than as reported. I can't reliably use them on the air.

They're officially calling these "WEATHER SENSORS" even though no "sensing" is going on here. When questioned about the accuracy, I was told a team of former SPC and other NOAA scientists now works with WSI on this project though not a single name was offered.

Why they would have launched such a service without perfecting their algorithms is beyond me and, IMHO, is quite a disservice to the general public.

Good forecasting always starts with good observations. We'll see what happens.

Not happy about it here, though, and it's going to be a topic of at least one presentation at the upcoming American Meteorological Society meeting in San Antonio Jan 2007.

[ALhurricane]

I have even noticed that TWC is doing the same thing here in Memphis. They report conditions 'from Memphis' that sometimes do not match what the official ASOS at Memphis International Airport is reporting.

It is quite a disservice.

[wall_cloud]

interpoloting data is a bunch of crap. forget all of the local effects that cause meteorological variations.

[peteywheatstraw]

Thanks y'all. I did try and get on the Weather Channel weather forum to ask about this but I never got a confirmation from them on my request.