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While there are many issues that need to be resolved within the National Weather Service’s (NWS) warning and forecast dissemination system. However, we often overlook many of the cool features that are featured within the NWS’ web pages. Because it is local, I will be highlighting some of the cooler features that the NWS Louisville offers within their webpage. They are one of the top offices in the country, and with that comes cool features.
This is one of the cooler features that I have found. What you can do is you can go and select a set of weather conditions that are ideal for whatever event you are planning, you set them in the boxes, and the system searches for the conditions nearest to that within the NWS Louisville forecast area for the 7 day timespan.
This is helpful in planning outdoor activities as it allows planners to make a quick change if the weather is forecasted to be inclement across the area they had scheduled for. Additionally, its fun to put in random numbers.
Now, for big events around here, we will give forecasts for the area and the areas around the event. However, for events outside of south-central KY, this is the place to go.
One of the things that happened post-4/27/2011-tornado-outbreak was that NOAA and the NWS systems began to see the importance of social media to warning discernment and dissemination. Basically everyone uses social media, and because of this, it is a wonderful medium in which to warn from. Well, the NWS Louisville has a page in which you can see their 3 major social media pages in once place, and you can change to other offices! If you are looking for a quick way to follow the NWS on Facebook or Twitter, or if you just want to see all of their posts in one spot, this is the place to go.
Kentucky and southern Indiana Tornado Climatology Page
This one is one of my personal favorites. Some employees at the NWS in Louisville put together a 184 year climatology of all of the known tornadoes to strike anywhere within central KY or southern IN. I know they put a lot of hard work into it, and it is one of the cooler pages I have ever seen.
I have a slight obsession with meteorological history. I love it. Just understanding weather events, their frequency, and when they are most likely to occur is one of the best parts of meteorology in the internet age. I love learning about events that have impacted our area over time, and how their impact has lasted. Well, out of all of the offices I have visited for information on events from the best, our NWS office has one of the best I have seen.
They have top 25 pages, top 10 pages, pre-2003 pages, tornado, winter storm, etc. pages. It’s a lot of information to handle at the tip of my fingers, and I love it. If you like to learn about crazy events in the past for central KY, then this is your first stop!
The NWS Louisville office has a wealth of great features on it’s webpage, but these are the major highlights that I have found in my time of surfing through it. I hope this can maybe make some of your free time more productive, or some of your busy time less productive! If you just want a regular old forecast or to check out watch/warning stuff, then you can go to their homepage here.