Internet Weather Reporting
 

This might be of interest to some - I was doing a quick research on the weather forecast for Lijiang for my upcoming trip and here's what I've found. Data represent tomorrow's forecast(Oct 8, 07) from the various website.

AccuWeather: High 33C(93F) Low 21C(72F) Light rain
CNN: High 22C Low 9C *It says it's powered by Accuweather!
MSN Weather: High 29C(83F) Low 20C(67F)
Weatherbase/Quickcast: High 19C(66F) Low 10C(50F)

So... tomorrow's weather forecast for Lijiang is(are) a high of 66F - 93F and a low of 72F - 49F. What....!!!

How can this be in such a modern age. No wonder everybody here keep asking about the weather because the information out there is so conflicting. Should I pack my t-shirts and shorts or do I pack my thermal wear!

How about this one
http://www.qwikcast.com/cgi-bin/fore...zip=Lijiang,CN

Sorry, didn't mean to post that. Just can't get on with a laptop.

The "Lijiang" reported by AccuWeather's own site and MSN is probably some other Lijiang than the one in Yunnan. AccuWeather let you choose from several, and I think they're confused themselves.

The other ones, including the qwikcast one, are pretty consistent. About 19-22C flro high, 9-13C for low. Which is the right temperature for Lijiang at this time of year.

No way will the high be 33C.

RKKWAN, is there more than one town in China call "Lijiang"? It would be good to know before I travel there, hate to board a plane for Lijiang, Yunnan and end up somewhere on the Mongolian border.

There's something wrong with the weather reporting for most of smaller or less traveled towns.

I am going to 'will guess at this' but I think it is probably close to reality.

In the 'old days' there were weather stations, every few hours someone goes out and measures any rain, check's the barometer readings, pressures and temperatures, wind direction, speed etc, looks to the sky, experience also helps to judge.

In many countries the weather boxes were at rail stations where the staff there took the readings, this is because they had telegraph wires 'at the station'

Goes back and that is sent by telegraph/wireless/wire/radio to a local, regional, national weather center.

( I also saw this on TV about the railways in Bengal and how they predicted monsoon etc, looked a bit old fashioned but they seemed to be very precise )

That information is viewed and together with reports from elsewhere in the country they know what clouds are doing what, wind directions and speed, create the pressue graphs and get a 'picture'.

That compiles the weather 'report' and helps to plan a forecast.

I don't know how it is done now, obviously satelite images play a major part, I guess that data is sent auromaticaly an a computer decides.

I think Hanuman's point is that 'these days' you would think that weather reports/forecasts would probably be 'spot on', we like to often joke about weather reports being wrong but the reality is that they 'often are', I think the point was with technology we might expect them to be more exact.

Nothing beats looking out the window, and to a greater extent that is what old days weather stations did, I would guess most are now automated.

Accuweather has 4 Lijiangs. But don't worry, only one has an airport...

James,

What you wrote remind me high school when we had to monitor the weather for class. But nowadays how can one reputable web site report a high for Lijiang at 33C or 93F and another website reporting a high of only 19C or 66F and a low of 10C!

Just to reconfirm my finding I've just checked the weather for Lijiang, Yunnan, China again and here's the result - note, what I posted yesterday for for a forecast for Oct 8 and the result below is for the actual weather now not forecast:

Accuweather: Today's high 33C(93F) "RealFeel" = 40C (105F). Low 21C (71F)
CNN: High 23C(75F). Low 10C(50F) and this is powered by "Accuweather"!!!
MSN: High 28C(82F). Low 22C(71F)
Qwikcast: 17C (63F). Low 12C(53F)

So I could be going to a town where the maximum temperature could feel like 105F or 63F, depending on who you check with!

LOL Rkkwan! Just keep thinking of the time when I was flying to Albany, Georgia and ended up in Albany, New York!

Again, 33C <b>is NOT Lijiang, Yunnan</b>. I don't think it gets that that any time of the year, let alone October.

It's an error on Accuweather and MSN's listings.

I agree Rkkwan. Just trying to make a point about the inconsistencies.

Hanuman -- and there is an Albany in California!