Learning more about weather

"Randy" wrote in message
oups.com...
Have you tried visting the local office of the NWS? I went there and
asked a few questions and the staff (CRW) could not have been more
helpful.


Oh, I am sure they are, as they are in the Meteorological Service of Canada
(MSC).

I don't know exactly about the NWS, but the MSC has "centralized", and the
TAF for your airport is issued (typically), from a windowless basement some
hundreds of miles away. The phone number for that basement is not public.
You get to speak to an FSS briefer for your area, but he gets what he gets
through the MSC communications network. I am not even sure that even *he*
gets to actually speak to the windowless basement.... except possibly in the
case of "emergency" where the forecast is truly bust.

The guys in the basement would be *very* helpful.... if you could get to
them, somehow. MSC used to publish a 1-900 pay-per-call number for speaking
to a forecaster, but I don't see those advertised anymore, either.

Even the FSS has "centralized". In the most densely populated area of
Canada, a single FSS now handles an area well over 200 miles across. No
sweat... what with 1-800 number dialup, internet, and
strategically-distributed remote-radio transceivers....

But those methods of communication do not beat "going there and asking a few
questions", as you put it.