forecasters

When it came to forecasting L.A.’s biggest winter storm of the season, local meteorologists had a secret weapon: experience.For sure, there was plenty of computer modeling available to indicate the Southland was in for a severe — and potentially dangerous — soaking. But based on their expertise, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Oxnard correctly anticipated that even the machine-calculated, eye-popping rain totals were probably an underprediction. When it comes to such a serious storm event, getting the…

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week: From fashion to burials: How fungi can help fight climate change 2024 has barely started and is already threatening to set temperature records World's globetrotting animals at risk due to habitat…

Christmas lights might not be the only thing lighting up these dark December nights, as a solar storm is expected to bring bright northern lights to the Prairies this weekend.Aurora borealis is considered among the greatest natural wonders and scientists say it starts with the sun."The sun is sort of spewing off protons and electrons as a plasma in all directions, all the time, we call that the solar wind," said Bill Archer, mission manager at the Canadian Space Agency. "The magnetic field of the Earth actually forces the…

Finally, a robot to tell you which jacket you should wear to the function. Google DeepMind, the search giant’s AI-centric brain trust, just announced a new weather forecasting model that beats traditional systems more than 90% of the time. Named GraphCast, the machine learning model promises 10-day predictions that are better, faster, and more energy-efficient than the tools that run your weather app today.No Google AI Search, I Don’t Need to Learn About the “Benefits of Slavery” “We believe this marks a turning point in…

The Atlantic hurricane season is just over the horizon, and we can expect a near-normal year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this Thursday. Hurricanes and Climate | Extreme EarthIn a forecast for the 2023 hurricane season, NOAA projected that there’s only a 30% chance of an above-active season. There’s a 40% chance of a near-normal season and a 30% chance that this year will see below-normal storm activity. Hurricane season officially lasts from June 1 to November 30and reaches its peak in the…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, March 24.California kicked off 2023 with a barrage of heavy weather that’s barely let up since New Year’s. A dozen atmospheric rivers have rolled through since late December, bringing epic rain, record snow and, for some communities, danger and devastation.This week’s storm was especially severe in the Bay Area, where five people were killed in a single day, all reportedly by falling trees.In San Francisco, strong winds shattered glass on…

Another atmospheric river system has set its sights on California, raising considerable concern about flooding and structural damage as warm rain is expected to fall atop the state’s near-record snowpack this week, forecasters say. “It now appears increasingly likely that a potentially significant and very likely warm atmospheric river event will probably affect some portion of Northern or Central California sometime between about late Thursday and Saturday,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said during a briefing…

Hello, it’s Tuesday, March 7, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:TOP STORIES California forecasters warn of an approaching atmospheric riverAnother atmospheric river system has set its sights on California, raising considerable concern about flooding and structural damage as warm rain is expected to fall atop the state’s near-record snowpack this week, forecasters say.The forecast comes as California is mired in a remarkably deep snowpack amid one of its wettest winters on record. Officials said the bounty…

An approaching storm system is expected to bring cold and wet conditions to Southern California this week after an unseasonably warm Christmas weekend.The winter storm system is expected to arrived Tuesday afternoon in Santa Barbara and move into Los Angeles County during the evening. Forecasters expect moderate to heavy rainfall, producing about half an inch to an inch of rain in the Los Angeles area with snow in the higher elevations above 6,000 feet. Temperatures will drop to the low to mid 60s during the week. “There…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Predicting snowfall from winter storms is tricky, in no small part because heavy snow and regions of mixed precipitation look very similar in weather radar imagery. Mixed precipitation falls as a blend of rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow and can be mistaken for heavy snow on radar imagery, while translating to less snow accumulation on the ground. …