ForecastWatch June 2010 Customer Newsletter

There have been a number of updates to ForecastWatch this month. First, the May 2010 data has been loaded into ForecastWatch Online and is now available.

Second, the reaggregation of precipitation data continues, and all of 2010 has been reaggregated and 2009 is progressing now. I've attached the ORSS average of all providers map for one day out in January, 2010, that shows the difference that not discriminating by precipitation type makes. The map labeled "old" has a large area showing no skill, while the map labeled "new" does not. This is due to the large number of stations that don't report snowfall, just liquid-equivalent. There are still a few stations where I'm concerned liquid-equivalent isn't being adequately reported, so I'm still researching, but I think you'll find the precip statistics, particularly in the winter months, are far more useful now.

Third, as part of dramatically improving the speed of aggregations, to allow more forecast data types to be aggregated (such as wind, sky conditions, etc.), and to bring in more forecast partners, a number of architectural changes have been made in the latest release. The only noticeable changes include the removal of the "OvrRMS" column in the temperature tables, and the download CSV/Excel files no longer combine high and low temperature statistics.

The "OvrRMS" column was a column on the temperature tables that combined the RMS error for high temperature with the RMS error for low temperature. It was always a bit problematic, especially around the forecast edges (where there might be a high temp forecast but not a low, and vice versa), and was just a simple average of the high RMS and low RMS. The individual RMS error for each type (high, low, mos high, etc.) remains in the "RMS" column.

If you are interested in an "at-a-glance" dashboard that would incorporate metrics like "OvrRMS" or the types of data available at ForecastAdvisor, or would provide lists of "good" or "trouble" spots, please get in contact with me!

As always, don't hesitate to contact me with questions, issues, or concerns...