Wx Infinity Forums

Is that time again when the clocks are moved foward one hour starting next sunday at 2 AM.

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b2.html

Also means the forecast models come in an hour later..

I know. Some people wish that the U.S. government would just desist messing with it. What about you? Do any of you feel the same way or no?

I would take Daylight Savings Time over Standard Time ANYDAY! I absolutely HATE how early it gets dark in the winter! 6:30PM would be better than getting dark at 5:30PM in December! Blahh on standard time!!

ThunderMan wrote:I would take Daylight Savings Time over Standard Time ANYDAY! I absolutely HATE how early it gets dark in the winter! 6:30PM would be better than getting dark at 5:30PM in December! Blahh on standard time!!

I agree. In fact, maybe we should set the clocks an hour ahead in the fall, too, when days are getting shorter. Heck, let the sunrise be closer to noon. I'd rather be able to do things outdoors in the evening and have the sun out.

My first job out of college was as an on-site meteorologist on an oil platform off the southern tip of South America (about 53 deg. South). Fortunately, I was there during the summer months. The sun would come up around 4am and set after 11pm. Sky was so clear that the ball of the sun was bright white all the way down to the horizon.

Ed Mahmoud wrote:I have never seen an on-site meteorologist offshore.

They do get a fax from some private company (not AccuWx), and I'd always read with interest during happy fun hurricane season.

My timing was off, never was offshore for a rig evac.

I was offshore and on-site quite a long time ago (1980), but we still occasionally encounter special projects that require a meteorologist on-site out in the Gulf. Such a job as installing the mooring lines for a giant deepwater semisubmersible, or monitoring for rapid wind shifts on a drill ship in the Gulf. Sometimes we send someone down to Ingleside, TX for the sail out of a big platform.

Back in 1980 I had virtually no data to work with. I had a shortwave radio that picked up a data feed, so I could plot hourly observations across Argentina and Chile. The same type of shortwave was connected to a primitive wefax machine. However, most of the weather charts I got only had data on them down to about 35S latitude, and I was at 53S. The only data I had most of the time was from a Polar orbiting satellite. And I had to listen for the signal then tune it in by hand if I wanted any images. That meant not sleeping for more than 1.5 hours at a time, as a new signal could be picked up about every 90 minutes. If I slept through it, I got no data.

Oh, and there was absolutely NO model data available back then for the Southern Hemisphere. Talk about a difficult forecast challenge.

Off subject, but those 'early' days bring back memories. Back in the '80's, I remember using a radio at home to pick up the wefax signal in order to get a blurry satellite picture and a few fax charts on my DOS based computer

wxman57 wrote:
I was offshore and on-site quite a long time ago (1980), but we still occasionally encounter special projects that require a meteorologist on-site out in the Gulf. Such a job as installing the mooring lines for a giant deepwater semisubmersible, or monitoring for rapid wind shifts on a drill ship in the Gulf. Sometimes we send someone down to Ingleside, TX for the sail out of a big platform.

Back in 1980 I had virtually no data to work with. I had a shortwave radio that picked up a data feed, so I could plot hourly observations across Argentina and Chile. The same type of shortwave was connected to a primitive wefax machine. However, most of the weather charts I got only had data on them down to about 35S latitude, and I was at 53S. The only data I had most of the time was from a Polar orbiting satellite. And I had to listen for the signal then tune it in by hand if I wanted any images. That meant not sleeping for more than 1.5 hours at a time, as a new signal could be picked up about every 90 minutes. If I slept through it, I got no data.

Oh, and there was absolutely NO model data available back then for the Southern Hemisphere. Talk about a difficult forecast challenge.

That is really primitive! What city or town did you live in South America. The southern most place in South America is Puerto Williams, Chile and Ushuaia, Argentina. I hear it is very beautiful there with the mountains and oceans. Did you see the Magallenic Clouds when you were in South America?

wxdata wrote:Off subject, but those 'early' days bring back memories. Back in the '80's, I remember using a radio at home to pick up the wefax signal in order to get a blurry satellite picture and a few fax charts on my DOS based computer

Times have changed.

wxman57, how many miles were you from Antarctica's peninsula on that islet? I am going to speculate around one hundred twenty miles, although, I could be wrong.

Ptarmigan wrote:

wxdata wrote:Off subject, but those 'early' days bring back memories. Back in the '80's, I remember using a radio at home to pick up the wefax signal in order to get a blurry satellite picture and a few fax charts on my DOS based computer

Times have changed.

That is right, ace.

But, by how many fold, Ptarmigan?

Hey, Mr. Ptarmigan, one of our weather statistical specialists.