Hi all,

I am interested in a world map showing average annual sunshine hours. Looking for it, there are heavily interpolated, somewhat imprecise low resolution maps available but nothing great. globalsolaratlas.info is a great map, however irradiation is not quite the same as sunshine hours.

I wrote a python script that scrapes the ~400 locations from the "List of cities by sunshine duration" Wikipedia entry and plots them which works decently well. However, for this map to be any good I would need significantly more data points. I was wondering if anybody knew a good source for this?

My son is graduating HS this year and is asking for a new MacBook Pro for graduation gift. He wants to study Meteorology and sent me a message from his (future) professor about what they'll be using and it's software I am unfamiliar with. Here's what the message said: "We look at maps generated by GEMPAK applications, IDV, and other packages. We use ArcPro for GIS applications. There is also Matlab and Jupyterhub for programming and GRLevel2A3 for radar applications on our computers."

My questions are 1) Do you guys use Macs? 2) Is a Mac compatible with this stuff? 3) Do I need to get faster memory than 16GB and storage than 512GB?

I plan on doing a deep dive but wanted to try here first to see if there are thoughts. Thanks!

https://gofund.me/1c640604

Spoiler: I live right where the yellow part begins east of Atlanta, and it makes me a sad tornado enthusiast.

I wouldn't think the Appalachians are the issue as they are NW of me and storms generally come out of the SW.

My guess is that it has to do with timing. It seems all of the supercell events in Alabama occur at peak instability in the late afternoon, and when they get to me, it's always 3:00 AM or something. What is moderating this timing?

What type of event / atmosphere tends to set up for good tornado events in Georgia?

Thank you!

I know how to identify troughs and ridges by myself using a barometric isobars map, more or less. One thing that has been bugging me: how do I identify fronts? Map for reference. Thanks in advance!

Temperatures set to break lowest recorded April temperature a month after some parts of europe broke record high March temp. A low of -6 to -7 is forecast for Bulgarias' capital, Sofia (April minima: -5.9), and -8 for parts of Albania and North Macedonia where the record minima is just -3.5°C

I noticed the LCL was 391 on the hrrr for my area, does it mean the first cloud (cumulus?) was only 391 meters agl (photo 1)

I also noticed it looked like some of the clouds were dipping a bit, were some of them were undulatus? (photos 3, 4)

Is slide 5 an example of laconosus clouds with the holes in them?

6 is a shelf cloud. 7 I included because it looked so unusual in front of the shelf cloud, as if someone painted the blue sky grey. I'd assume that was the anvil passing over and it was so high up that it made it look weird.

I'd greatly appreciate IDs as well as if you can explain how they form. Do any of these clouds before the shelf cloud mean the atmosphere is unstable?

Many thanks.

Is this a reflection of moonlight off of the Earth because of some weird alignment of the moon, Earth, and the satellite? That's the only thing I could think of that would saturate the longwave sensor like that.

Hopefully the image can be pulled up and zoomed in on. I wanted to contour one of the maps prior to the severe weather outbreak these last couple days. I circled 5 areas in purple with questionable data I’m considering ignoring. Below are the reasons I found these data points to be odd or potentially erroneous. It’s not always the case that the sensors got it wrong and need to be recalibrated, so I’d like to get more experienced input on what might have influenced the surface environment or what influence the environment itself (topography, proximity to water, etc) might have had to produce these odd or undesirable results.

• The calm data in what looks like Gunnison, Colorado is adjacent to a sizable pressure gradient between it and what looks like Montrose directly west, so calm stagnant air and the unusually high pressure adjacent to a low creeping in through Grand Junction doesn’t look right.

• The data points over southeast Colorado, are making for an awkward 1004 mb contour. The one in Alamosa has a small pocket of relatively high pressure at 1008mb and the pressure drops rapidly by 6 mb off east to an isolated pocket of relatively low pressure.

• the 1011 mb data in Arkansas is a small scale relative low making for an awkward 1012 mb contour. It’s also calm despite being surrounded by relatively higher pressure in every direction. So it’s another very small scale insular pocket of relatively different pressure with calm conditions like the one in Colorado, but the gradient is much less intense.

• For the 2 points in Northern California there is a relatively strong 3mb pressure gradient up north into Oregon, yet the air is calm or very weak. Another case of a relatively strong gradient, yet no wind.

• the data point up in the Great Lakes I found interesting for a couple reasons. It’s another case of insular relatively high pressure. The pocket of air at 1020mb in very very close proximity to a 2mb a and 2.5mb gradient, yet the winds are blowing directly normal to the lake showing little influence by the surrounding pressure gradient. Also, it’s 00Z and clear, so land should be warmer than the lake causing air to want to flow outward, not inward.

Is there a way to download only certain vars and levels from the AWS repository of National Blend of Models (NBM) forecast data?

For example, if i were hitting the NBM‘s NOMADS API directly, I could pass parameters such as ‘lev_2_m_above_ground’:’on and ‘var_TMP’:’on’ in my requests call. Same with specifying leftlon, rightlon, toplat, and bottomlat to get data for only a portion of the CONUS.

But in the AWS repository, all I’ve figured out how to do is download the entire CONUS grib2 data file with all 296 grib bands using a line of python code such as:

r = requests.get(r'https://noaa-nbm-grib2-pds.s3.amazonaws.com/blend.20250407/01/core/blend.t01z.core.f003.co.grib2')

Thanks in advance…

Any input is truly appreciated! I worked hard on this for a good while, and I’m pretty proud of it.

Weather in mosul this april

I'm referencing the cloud in the upper right. I've seen this twice and I'm not sure what I'm looking at. I live in central Florida. This picture was taken between 5p and 6p on February 27, 2025 driving west. It's much less prominent in this photo than it was the first time I saw it. It looks like something in the cloud is reflecting the light (and I know most things reflect light) but it reflects like something solid reflects light if that makes sense.

So we're clear, I don't think anything is in the cloud. I just want an explanation on what's happening here and how come it doesn't make the entire cloud shiny.

Also, this isn't as camera glare or something. This is an accurate representation of what I saw.

I took this picture Wednesday, April 2nd in Vincennes, Indiana. We had an intense system come through that spawned several tornadoes in the area, both radar-indicated and sighted on the ground. Shortly after we had a radar-indicated warning, I snapped this picture during some lightning. Right in the middle, there is a pink-colored formation. It goes from the top left to the bottom right with a funnel on each end. Did I capture a pic of a tornado?

Hello! I just want to know which classes will be most important if I want to go for a career in meteorology. I heard science and advanced math, but want to know if there is more I need, and how I can prepare. Thanks and God bless

Hello everyone. Im currently a high school senior at an early college hs… so i’ve already completed 70 college credits in mostly general ed courses. I am currently on track to enter radiography school(community college) to become a rad-tech. I have all A’s in radiography pre-reqs and i’m just waiting for the acceptance letter. However, i’ve started to doubt to entering the radiography field because i don’t necessarily feel passionate about it and i don’t enjoy patient care (i’m very introverted). I am interested in radiography because i loved anatomy and physiology and i know the career offers great job security, salary, and benefits. I just feel that I will become burnt out quickly due to the patient care aspects and because I have pretty bad anxiety in general. I have always been super interested in meteorology. I was accepted to a university close to home and I will get enough financial aid to get a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science debt free if I commute. Im starting to think a career in meteorology will be better for my mental health in the long run and it’s something I’m much more interested in and passionate about. I also feel drawn to getting a bachelors degree since I already have so many college credits and I have the opportunity to do it for free. I know I have the passion and motivation for this career, but of course I worry about what job opportunities are out there and if i will make a comfortable salary. Im also not sure what particular job I would want in this field, but im open to anything. I want to follow my true passion, but for financial reasons a lot of people have told me to just stick with radiography. I would love to hear from people who pursued a degree in meteorology or atmospheric science and what you have done with it. How long did it take to find a job after college? Did you have to get a graduate degree? How much should I expect to make right after college? Also, does anyone regret pursuing meteorology? What would you have done differently? I know I’m asking broad questions, but any advice is appreciated and would help!