2002-02-06 Very good letter Jim. But, I wonder if they need help in using degrees Celsius, or any other SI unit for that matter. According to the e-mail posted by Nikolay in USMA17979, the Weathermen in Utah already use SI behind the scenes.
Hi! Thanks so much for your note! One funny thing - it's still strange to see a 5 day forecast with a high of -2, but we use the metric system for quite a bit of behind the scene stuff, so it's just natural to put it on the air... If they use SI behind the scenes in Utah, I'd bet the Weather folks in Charleston do too. It is just a matter of convincing them that they are wasting their time constantly converting all the official data in SI to FFU. Hopefully, they will realise that their work will become easier once they drop the FFU all together. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, 2002-02-06 11:34 Subject: [USMA:17983] Salt Lake City weather forecasts > Dear Rob, > > I just received this email from a colleague and good friend and I thought I > would pass it along to you since you mentioned Salt Lake City weather on the > 11 PM news last night. > > "Sorry for bombarding your email inbox with emails this morning - I was > watching Fox 13's Good Morning Utah just a minute ago, and they read > parts of my email to them on air. The meteorologist Damon Yauney also > said that they have been receiving "quite a bit of positive feedback for > putting their forecasts in Celsius." So, they also added the whole > 5-day forecasts in C also." > > How about bringing us Charlestonians into the 21st century along with the > Utah folks, Rob? This is a great opportunity to provide some educational > material (which you folks do wonderfully) and start adding metric data to our > forecasts. I approach you because I have found that Channel 2 is the leader > in this area and what you folks do, others will emulate. After all, we in > Charleston like to pride ourselves on being a modern and international city, > friendly to people from all lands (i.e., touri$ts). > > I would like to see, at least in parallel with your current numbers, > temperatures in Celsius, pressures in hectopascals , and wind speeds in > kilometers per hour. Just picking the current data off the weather banner on > my home page here (which you are encouraged to see for yourself via the URL > in my signature block) we've got at 1056 this morning: > temp 4 �C > press 1026 hPa (* see note below) > wind 14 km/h out of the ENE > vis 16 km > Note the proper way to present units please, especially maintaining the space > between the numbers and the symbols. Contrary to common beliefs, the raised > circle goes after the space in the temperatures since it is part of the > symbol. Other common mistakes are not taking care with upper and lower case > letters, using "p" instead of "/" (arghh!) in the wind speeds, and using "hr" > instead of the proper "h" for hour. You would want to do this correctly, I > know, since you have due regard for accuracy. > > (* Note: The hectopascal is numerically equal to the millibar, but the > hectopascal is a modern metric unit, whereas the millibar is not. That > pressure could also be presented as 102.6 kPa as they would in Canada, but > here in the US, the hectopascal is more popular due to the relationship with > the old millibar.) > > You may feel free to pull the info off my home page on "judging winds" -- > what constitutes a breeze, etc. I got those from the federal meteorology > handook (FMH-1), as I recall. > > I would be glad to lend a hand with this if you wish. In fact, you could use > that witty ditty on my web page for getting familiar with temperatures in > Celsius, which I have taught to kids in grades Kindergarten and up. When > those kids see the temperatures in Celsius on your weather segments they will > take great delight in "educating" their folks. I did not make that ditty up, > by the way; others did. > > Jim > > -- > James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston > 10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy > Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street > 843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 > http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644 >
