Important surface features in weather forecasting????

Question

Im doing this project for my cpe class...and mine is on Weather forcasting.. i was given alot of questions and points that need to be explained and such...But....

I cant find anything on the question

"What Important surface features should you consider when making a forecast"

Stumped. dont understand it at all. i've got this web site, but its all jibber-ish to me

[http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/fcst/sfc/hgh.rxml]

help please

Answer 1

In order to be a good forecaster, you must understand your local area.  It takes about two years of experience for a forecaster to understand how some of these local features will interact with one another to produce an unique weather event.  That said, here is a list of surface features that you must consider and that the computer forecast model may not be able to handle.  

Mountains and hills...

Winds in this area will change speed and direction.

If the storm moves over a hill or mountain...must know freezing level to determine at what elevation the precipitation will change to snow.

Also, air going uphill will produce more precipitation for any given storm.  (also known as orographic enhanced precipitation)  Wind flowing downhill will produce less precipitation.

If the winds are light and the skies are clear...the foothill locations will experience winds going up the hill by afternoon or early evening.  Winds will then go down the hill no faster than 10 mph by late at night or early morning hours. (also known as  drainage winds)

2. Bodies of water...

Due to how the different surface will heat up or cool down, you will get winds flowing from water to land at coastal locations with the heating of the day.  (also known as seabreeze or lake breeze).  This will not only increase the surface winds, but bring cooler and high humidities of the marine air inland.  At night, the marine air retreats back towrad the water. (also known as a land breeze)  This will bring drier air from inland towards the coast.  However, this air may be warmer or cooler than the marine air at night.  The boundary between these marine and inland air ia a boundary.  So thy are really a surface front.  If it is unstable, you can have showers and thunderstorms forming along it.

For smaller bodies of water including ponds and rivers...if the air is flowing over it, expect a slight increase in humidities.  If this river water is flowing down from the moutains...especially from melting snow, expect a slight decrease in temperatures.

3. Mixed Features...

Winds flowing in or through river canyons can be much stronger and much more eratic in both speed and direction.

4. Heat Island Effect...

Expect temperatures to be a few degrees warmer around the clock for any locations within a major city of just down wind from a major city.  

5. Very high terrain features...

Thunderstorms that form over high mountain peaks or ranges and moves off the the crest will have a higher chance of becoming dry lightning event if the air over the valley is very dry in the summer.  If this occurs in the winter, watch for evaprative cooling where snow levels can drop rapidly downhill.

Moist surface/Fog...

During the cool season, expect better chance of radiational ground fog to develop near lakes, rivers, low elevation farm fields, and wind sheltered areas.

These are just a few examples off the top of my head.  Surface features can change how the air flow in both speed and direction.  This will sometimes cause air to converge in locations that you would least expect.  If you understand what to expect these features will have on the air flow, you will be able to do a much better job in forecasting the wind, temperature, precipitation, humidities, and condensation of your local area.