It's a public consumption and a safety problem, and the lack of
incentive by The Congress of The United States to mandate the use of SI
units for disseminating weather information to the public.
I was told today that all weather observing equipment sensors now
purchased by the USG are metric and that the metric units (observations) are
converted to English units where necessary, including for the public. So
it's a matter of public policy to change Wx dissemination to the SI and
under the control of The US Congress.
The NOAA NWS does charge companies to interface directly to its computer
systems since there is a cost involved for the access. I don't believe that
the NWS makes any money on it. In Great Brittan, the government weather
service competes directly with commercial weather services/providers. In
the US, that's not the case. If fact, the NOAA NWS tries to make it easy
for non-government Wx providers - radio, TV airlines, etc. - to do their
jobs better.
Regards. Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:01 AM
Subject: [USMA:39922] Re: Metric Weather
Several years ago, when I was working closely with the NWS Forecast
Office in Charleston, I asked the same thing. Here's what I was told.
Commercial weather forecast providers screamed about the government
providing for free what they were trying to sell. So NWS was required to
tack on a fee for its information provided by wire, though it could post
the information freely on its own web pages.
Once the NWS was required to sell its services, market mentality set in
and the decision was made to sell what the customer wanted. Customers in
the US were of course used to non-SI weather, so that's what NWS
sells--as do other weather forecast providers.
I've seen and worked with the raw data. ASOS (a multifunction weather
sensor, commonly seen at airports) and radiosondes (weather balloons)
read out in metric units. The NWS forecast programs (that I saw at that
time) worked in metric units. The historic, current, and forecast
information was "translated" into doofus units before it went out to the
public.
NWS felt it had to so translate the data "to remain competitive" with
the other weather services in the country. Recent Congressional actions
had mandated this "competitive" requirement upon NWS, with threats of
shutting down the National Weather Service ("Hey,I know--let's contract
it out!") if they failed to compete successfully. We came very close to
seeing NWS disbanded and abolished several years ago.
Jim
Nat Hager III wrote:
I had a local TV weatherman tell me that once. That metric is used
internally a lot, but converted to imperial for release to the public.
Nat
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of STANLEY DOORE
Sent: Wednesday, 2007 December 19 6:45
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:39920] Re: Metric Weather
Thanks for the US EO on metrication.
The EO has caveats which do not require metrication although
metrication has taken place behind the scenes. Metric is used and has
been
used at least since numerical weather prediction began in the 1950s;
however
these are converted to English units for the public and other consumers.
Regards, Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Hudnall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>; "U.S. Metric
Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: [USMA:39906] Re: Metric Weather
NOAA is a part of the Department of Commerce, which is in the Executive
Branch of the federal government. As such, it should be in compliance with
Executive Order 12770. Technically, our weather should be reported in
metric
units, or at the very least with metric as the primary unit.
One would think that since the Secretary of Commerce was the one tasked
with
carrying out this order, that he would have started with his own
department.
The text of the Executive order is here:
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/laws/eo12770.html
On Tuesday, December 18, 2007, at 12:42PM, "STANLEY DOORE"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Scott:
Which Executive Order? I'd like to read it. Please provide a url.
Regards, Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Scott Hudnall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: [USMA:39901] Re: Metric Weather
Why is an Executive Branch government agency out of compliance with a
standing Executive Order?
--
Scott Hudnall
Seattle, WA USA
http://www.gometric.us/
On Dec 18, 2007, at 2:13, STANLEY DOORE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The Wx maps and many graphics provided by WeatherBug are produced by
the
NOAA National Weather Service without change so they remain in English
units. WeatherBug just picks up the graphics without change.
Individual
station data are automated and can be easily converted by WeatherBug so
units can be selected in English or metric.
Regards, Stan Doore
.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Pierre Abbat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 10:58 PM
Subject: [USMA:39900] Re: Metric Weather
On Monday 17 December 2007 21:07, Carleton MacDonald wrote:
I just downloaded it and it's been done. Nice.
Only other thing would be to take a look at the symbolic thermometer,
which
goes from -20 to +100, and size it for Celsius if that option is
chosen,
perhaps something like -30 to +50.
There is another thing. I clicked on the 7-day forecast and got a map
below
the forecast, labeled "Current Temps", in which North Carolina is 33
and
South Carolina is 32. Those are typical summer temperatures here. I
just
walked home from work and there are ice sparkles on the grass, and the
high
tomorrow is 12.
The hourly forecast still says "kph" and puts a space between "°" an d
"C",
which shouldn't be there. The temperatures on the 7-day forecast omit
the "C". The box labeled "Your Forecast for Charlotte, NC" below the
hourly
gets the symbol right.
Pierre
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
