unloadonme said:
Does it need to be? I imagined that weather forecasting was largely computerised these days and that human input was limited to hiring someone to read the forecast out on the telly.
Maybe not all the time, but during severe-weather season, yeah it absolutely should be.
The computer forecast models will show a *general* area and timing of where/when are possible, but they won't give an exact time or location of where a storm will fire..
There are also multiple forecast models out there, each with its own intricacies & algorithms, thus arriving at different outcomes (can end up being pretty similar or totally different) so forecasting means looking at the various models and knowing which ones tend to be more accurate for particular weather setups, along with how things interact in their(the forecaster's) local region - something that would really take having lived there for awhile. I kinda envy those guys, there is allot to it.
Even with all that...nature still does its own thing. (I sometimes look at some of the models myself, and yeah at times they can be pretty accurate, other times not so much .lol. )
The point where you need someone local who can be watching satellite & radar feeds, *and* know the little quirks of their local weather, is when storms (using thunderstorms as an example here) initiate... once that happens a storm can grow to severe limits pretty quickly. Storms can also move fast - you need someone who can see it happening and issue warnings *before* it hits an area.
(as a 'storm lover' .lol. I look at storms & warnings on radar, I've seen cases where a storm is moving 70+ mph! ... just think of that storm with a tornado & large hail blasting across the countryside towards a town ... and no warning gets issued for it because the weather-office is closed & other nearby offices(which are likely understaffed) are busy with their own storms)
Now granted, most severe weather occurs in the afternoon or evening (that assumption made that WY weather being similar to here in CO), there are those cases where the conditions are right to fire late-night storms!
They at minimum need someone who can be available on those nights where models (and local observations) show conditions are right for possible storms.
