Right in rain: After 15 years of forecasting, Local Yokel is shifting focus

Preston Jacobsen, a man some know better as the Local Yokel Weather guy, comes by his love of meteorology honestly.

‘And then it was too late’: Flood warning timeline reveals challenges of mountain forecasting

On the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 17, Rob Young was watching the rain fall. He watched it first through the windows of his office at Western Carolina University and then later at his home in Webster — and, continuously, on his computer screen, where ever-changing river depths were displayed through the state’s Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network, or FIMAN

Data-driven analysis drives modern weather forecasting

Some things change, and some things stay the same. 

Thousands of years ago, humans developed visual and spoken languages to convey thoughts and meaning across space and across time. Among the first topics they shared with each other was one that has persisted even today — whether by smartphone app or over the weathered wooden top rail of the old back fence with a neighbor.

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