Comments on: Tropical Storm Nadine

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 04:53:40 +0000

The problem is that you need a map of the track in front of you to understand what the forecaster is talking about. The ‘discussion’ is a text product and doesn’t have graphics in it.

Eventually they will switch to a system that allows the inclusion of the graphics with the discussion and things will be clearer.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 03:48:36 +0000

ok, i'll be the contrarian here --- actually left and right are more useful than compass bearings here: every track that has a forward direction also has a left side and a right side, no matter how curved or straight or tangly that track may be.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 05:19:19 +0000

I notice that they do that in the discussion on the storm, as if you were looking at the same map that the forecaster is looking at. It gets hard to follow at times unless I bring the map up in a separate tab to see what is going on.

The cyclones that hit Australia are the province of the Naval Typhoon Center in Hawaii, so all of the formatting and terminology is different, as is the Australian Met reporting. They use different categories for storms than the Saffir-Simpson scale.

It takes a different mindset when the reality is that the further South you go, the colder it gets.

Come on, Badtux, everyone knows that facts and words have a liberal bias 😈

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:30:00 +0000

What is this "west" and "east" you talk of, Steve? You need to STOP making up words! All Democrats make up words!! That conversation happened, almost verbatim. Truth. - Badtux "They celebrate ignorance" Penguin

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:42:43 +0000

I notice one of the forecasters on the NHC site has started using phrases like “to the left of” and “to the right of” instead of “to the west of” and “to the east of.” I guess it’s just another example of the provincial American… no Aussie I’ve known would tolerate that language for a moment. One of our Australian public health grad students was so emphatic on the matter that she put up on the wall of her office a world map printed in Australia which had south on top. Point made and taken!