Weather

This site is provided as a means of communications with the USPS National Marine Environment Committee (MEnvCom).  We welcome your questions and comments on our modules, Learning Guides, and associated materials.

R/C Ronald H. Kessel, SN
Stf/C Joan C. Croft, AP

Topics

News

Weather 2008 Now Available

Wx08 is now the current edition of the USPS Weather Course. Wx101/102 exams will continue to be accepted and graded until 31 December 2009. See the WX101/102 web page for support information. (03 Jan 09)

Grib Files

In its September 2008 issue, Ocean Navigator published an article on grib files, weather-related data files that can be downloaded to your boat. Quoting author Ralph Naranjo, “The term grib refers to gridded binary files, geek speak for a compressed data format favored by meteorologists as a means of digitally transmitting weather data. …Never before has there been so much valuable data within easy reach of those poking along coastlines or sailing thousands of miles from home port.” Click on http://www.oceannavigator.com/GRIB to view the entire article. (29 Oct 08)

Ocean Navigator Weather e-newsletter

Ocean Navigator's Weather e-newsletter periodically provides mariners with useful weather insights that build their understanding of marine weather. The Ocean Navigator Weather e-newsletter is written by weather consultant Ken McKinley at Locus Weather in Camden, Maine, who produces custom weather forecasts and weather routing for both recreational and commercial clients. Receiving McKinley's weather newsletters is like having your own weather expert explaining the concepts behind the forecasts. To receive it, click on www.oceannavigator.com/weather. (29 Oct 08)

Boat U.S. Hurricane Resource Center

Boat owners from Maine to Texas have reason to become edgy in the late summer and fall: Each year, on average, two hurricanes will come ashore somewhere along the Gulf or Atlantic coasts, destroying homes, sinking boats, and turning people’s lives topsy turvy for weeks, or even months. This year, who knows? Florida is struck most often, but every coastal state is a potential target.

Experts predict that in the next 20 years there will be much more hurricane activity than has been seen in the past 20 years. Experts also fear that after a number of storm-free years, people in some of the vulnerable areas will be less wary of a storm’s potential fury. But to residents of Charleston, South Carolina, crippled by Hugo in 1989, and people in Dade County, Florida, ravaged by Andrew in 1993, the hurricane threat won’t soon be forgotten.

Click on http://www.boatus.com/hurricanes/brochure.asp for more information. (16 Aug 06)

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Weather 2008 Course Description

The safety and comfort of those who venture out-on-the water have always been weather dependent. For both sailors and power boaters, weather determines whether they head out or stay ashore. The ancients had a curiosity beyond the practical as they mused and theorized about what caused weather events. The subject captivated them. The USPS Weather course is an opportunity for students to experience the same fascination, but with the benefit of modern science.

And then there is the beauty: the enchanting ever-changing cloud formations; the dramatic spectacles of sunrises and sunsets; and awe inspiring clear starry nights.  In this course students will be looking up to learn what the sky has to say.  But becoming keener weather observers is not enough. Weather observations only have meaning in the context of the basic principles of meteorology — the science of the atmosphere.

Welcome to USPS Weather
The mid-latitudes are a weather war zone where enormous air masses battle one another along fronts, and powerful storm systems travel across the continent, lakes and oceans. Mid-latitude weather includes the blizzards of winter, the tornadoes of spring and summer, and the hurricanes of fall. Seasonal weather cycles produce temperature ranges from hot and humid in the nineties, to freezing in the subzero twenties.

For boaters, however, there are dangers even in the relatively benign conditions of everyday weather. Wind, rain, fog, and waves present special challenges to them. Wx08 is a general weather course benefiting those sitting in their living rooms, as much as those standing behind the helm.

Course Materials
The USPS Weather Course focuses on how weather systems form, behave, move, and interact with one another. The course also reflects the availability of all sorts of weather reports and forecasts on the internet. The course provides guidance for anticipating weather conditions through onboard and onshore observation. Each student receives:

• a Student Manual - USPS Weather - an explanatory text with full color photographs and drawings covering weather in the United States and its coastal and inland waters;
• a set of three Daily Weather Maps - learning aids with a compete explanation of map symbols designed to develop weather map reading and analysis skills; and
• NOAA’s National Weather Service Cloud Chart - a reference to assist in identifying cloud types – helpful indicators of approaching weather.

The manual’s appendices include Regional Weather (summary descriptions of weather in the major boating areas of the United States), a Glossary (terms appearing in the manual for the first time are in bold-faced type) and Homework Answers. All web site addresses in the course materials were current as of the time of publication, but may change.

NWS JetStream
The National Weather Service publishes online educational materials for public use about the Earth’s weather, water, and climate. The NWS JetStream Online School for Weather provides educators, emergency managers and the general public with a series of modules about specific weather related subjects. The modules are an additional learning resource. NWS JetStream web site references are given at the beginning of each chapter in the manual.

Course Procedure
The course is designed to be conducted over ten classroom sessions. The manual has eight chapters that vary somewhat in length and difficulty. Except for the chapter on forecasting, each chapter can be covered in one two-hour class session. Each Weather instructor will determine the pace of the course.

The first seven chapters contain a set of multiple choice homework questions. The questions reinforce the major points in the chapter and serve as a review at the end of the course. The forecasting chapter has a number of map drawing and analysis exercises. The instructor will guide students through them.

If the student understands the concepts listed in the short summary at the end of each chapter and reviews the homework questions, taking the multiple choice examination will be smooth sailing. In fact, most of the test questions will be taken directly from the chapter homework.

While the formal part of the course ends looking down at test questions, the important part of the course is looking up. The USPS Weather Course provides a basis for “reading” skyscrapers that are as compelling and beautiful as any seascape or landscape.

About the New Course:

• Manual: The new course returns to a one manual text and one module format. The USA Today’s The Weather Book and the USPS Supplemental Manual have been replaced by USPS Weather. Gone also are the separate Wx 101 and Wx 102 modules. Wx08 contains the entire syllabus with one examination at the end. The topics have been reorganized into eight chapters designed to be taught in a 10-session course.
• Graphics: While the strongest feature of The Weather Book – its graphics – has been retained, these illustrations have been supplemented not only with additional NWS/NOAA graphics but also specially created new ones.
• Instructor CD: All illustrations (some 250 color images) in the Student Manual are in the Instructor’s CD in Power Point format. The PPT slides may be used as is, or may be modified to suit the instructor’s preference. The Instructor’s CD also contains an additional 300 supplemental slides which can be used at the instructor’s option.
• Atmospheric Dynamics: Basic physical processes, surface and upper-level winds, convective vertical air movement, and how they affect each other are the basis for explaining what often appear to be unrelated weather systems and events. In a sense this emphasis on atmospheric dynamics represents a return to the W 90 weather course of almost two decades ago, but without the unnecessary technical equations. In fact, many of the new graphics were created to illustrate these fundamental dynamic relationships.
• Websites: Just as the piloting courses had to be fundamentally reworked to deal with GPS, Wx 08 puts internet based “weather stations” (e.g. the NWS web-sites) with their radar and satellite images and weather analyses/reports/forecasts at the center of the forecasting process. The Manual also includes in each chapter pertinent references to the NWS’s on-line weather course – JetStream.
• Tradition: The Wx 08 Manual combines the new with the old. Although the chapter on forecasting has been restructured, the course continues the USPS emphasis on surface maps and ends with the traditional forecasting exercises based on the NWS Daily Weather Maps included with the course materials. In the Manual the section on individual weather observations continues to receive its well-deserved full treatment and the section on Folklore with its marine sayings – a long-time favorite – has been reborn.
• Climate: Except for a brief discussion in the first chapter, the study of Climate has been eliminated. In a ten-session weather course the subject and the closely related one of global warming cannot be adequately handled. In fact, these topics add little (if anything) to a student’s understanding of shorter-term weather patterns and events – the focus of USPS weather courses.
• The Quick Guide: Students who have taken the USPS Seminar - Onboard Weather Forecasting - already have the Captain’s Quick Guide as a part of the seminar materials. While Wx 08 deals more comprehensively with all the subjects covered in the Quick Guide, it is a particularly convenient waterproof pocket reference for use in making weather observations outside the classroom – an activity instructors should encourage. As optional material, instructors should order Quick Guides no later than the third week of the course so they arrive by the time the last chapter - Chapter 8 on Forecasting - is covered.
• Level of Difficulty: Over the years the weather course in its various editions has been regarded as one of the more difficult of the USPS advanced and elective courses. The new manual faces up to this challenge not by avoiding or burying difficult topics (Coriolis Effect, upper and lower air flow relationships, adiabatic rates, etc.), but rather by meeting the challenge head-on with rewritten text and newly created graphics.
• Homework and Examination: Student review for the final examination is facilitated by the summaries at the end of each chapter and organizing homework questions by identified topics. The questions (i) have been selected to reinforce the more important principles in each chapter, (ii) are straightforward (no tricks), and (iii) avoid non-essential obscure subjects and facts. The final examination will only include questions on the material in the first seven chapters. The material covered in chapter 8 is reinforced through map drawing and analysis exercises. The optional Quick Guide is not necessary to answer either homework or examination questions. (03 Jan 09)

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Downloadable Material

See the Educational Department Help page to obtain any needed free viewers or shareware zip programs for these files. See the PowerPoint Help page for information on how to replace slides.

Weather Log

The following Weather Logs are for use in both the Cruise Planning and Weather courses.

• Weather Log in Acrobat format (PDF, 13KB)
• Weather Log in MS Excel format (XLS, 26KB)

Weather PowerPoint Slides

Slide shows of various weather phenomena for use by Weather course instructors and students. You will need Microsoft PowerPoint or its free viewer to view or print these slides.  To download into a directory on your hard drive, right click on the file link and be sure to change the file name to something meaningful for you. 

• Clouds ( 727KB)
• Floods (609KB)
• Hail (201KB)
• Miscellaneous (104KB)
• Thunderstorms and Tornados (1110KB)
• Weather Instruments (1475KB)

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Frequently Asked Questions

There are no Frequently Asked Questions for Wx 08 at this time.

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Regional Weather Guides

The MEnvCom is looking for your help with the Regional Weather Learning Guides Project.  We are soliciting contributions from all Members, Squadrons and Districts to complete this ambitious and worthwhile project.  Districts and individual Squadrons are encouraged to “adopt” one of the guides and contribute your local expertise to the rest of USPS.   We will also, of course, accept information from any individual contributors!

Introduction to Weather for Boaters, with examples from the Upper Mississippi River Basin (1936KB, PDF)—authored by Don Hansen, St Paul Squadron, D/10

Listed below are the 15 Regional Guides we would like to complete.  Following the list is a suggested outline for the guides we would like everyone to use for consistency.

1.      Northeast Atlantic Coast -  (New England – Long Island Sound)
2.      Northeast Interior (22KB, PDF) - (Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, Finger Lakes & Erie Canal)
Adopted by D/6--contact Harry Winberg, Utica Squadron, with comments and updates.
3.      Middle Atlantic Coast (11KB, PDF) - (Long Island South Shore, New York Harbor and Approaches, New Jersey and Delaware coasts and Bays)
Barnegat Bay from Barnegat Twp to the Metedeconk River, including Barnegat Inlet, adopted by D/4--contact Warren Timm, Barnegat Bay Squadron, with comments and updates.
4.      Chesapeake Bay
5.      Southeast Atlantic Coast - (including North Florida)
6.      South Florida and the Northern Bahamas - (east and west Florida coasts)
7.      Eastern Caribbean
8.      Gulf of Mexico
9.      Southern California and Baja
10.    Northwest Pacific Coast - (Northern California, Oregon/Washington and British Columbia)
Adopted by D/16—please contact Vern Redecker, Bellevue Squadron, with comments and updates.
11.     Great Lakes (9KB, PDF) - (lakes may be grouped or done individually as appropriate – note overlap with Northeast Interior)
Western Lake Erie adopted by D/7—please contact Doug Sewell, Berea Squadron, with comments and updates. Writeups are needed for Lakes  Huron, Michigan, and Superior.
12.     Mississippi River Basin Waterways (784KB, PDF)
Adopted by D/10--please contact Don Hansen, St Paul Squadron, with comments and updates.
13.     Inland Western Lakes
14.     Alaska
15.     Hawaii – South Pacific

Please contact the MEnvCom chair to get involved!
 

Regional Weather Learning Guide Suggested Outline

I.      Overview of local weather.
         A.      What seasons provide the best and/or worst boating?
II.     Where does the weather come from?
III.    What systems bring good and bad weather?
IV.     What conditions precede these systems?
V.      These systems bring what:
         A.      Winds
         B.      Precipitation
         C.      Visibilities
         D.      Clouds
         E.      Seas
VI.     Currents.
VII.    Tides.
VIII.    Where to seek shelter during a storm?
IX.     Sources of weather information.

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Weather Course Reference Material

Material of use to Weather course students is listed here.

• Weather symbols used on weather maps
• Suggested reference book list, May 2000 (PDF) (128KB)
• More suggested books, September 2000  (PDF) (137KB)

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Questions or Comments?

If you have any questions or comments about the Weather course, please contact the National Marine Environment Committee chairman by e-mail, phone or postal service mail.  Please be sure to keep your SEO and/or DEO advised of any correspondence you may have with the National committee. Addresses for the National MEnvCom chairman are listed in The ENSIGN and on the Committee Chairpersons page.

We will try to answer your questions as soon as possible, but please allow 5 working days for an answer.

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