Today’s weather forecasting is the application of current technology and science to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location.
Weather forecasts are made by collecting as much data as possible about the current state of the atmosphere. Utilizing the understanding of atmospheric processes, professional meteorologists determine how the atmosphere evolves in the future. In the marine environment, as it affects boaters the most, marine meteorologists are particularly interested in dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures to determine relative humidity, and combined with sea water temperatures, fog potential (this applies for large bodies of fresh water as well). The amount of moisture in the atmosphere is also vital in determining a range of weather conditions from light drizzle to heavy rain, snow, or hail at any given time of the day or night and of course, throughout the year. Measuring parameters such as atmospheric pressure as it directly relates to wind and over the ocean environment, thus result in sea state conditions. There are also other conditions which make the marine weather forecast issues become much more complex, and therefore, these discussions require greater depth than this seminar can cover.
Given the chaotic nature of the atmosphere and the incomplete understanding of the exact total processes involved, simply means that weather forecasts become less accurate as the range and length of time of the forecast increases. This would be especially true if the initial conditions were not accurate. Finally, this seminar will give much better insight as to the complexities of what not only goes into a marine weather forecast but the human intelligence behind them, and a better appreciation of the name behind the forecast.
