The Weather Blog The official blog of Victoria-Weather

Sri Lanka

Posted by Ryan

Today we're going to look at the island nation of Sri Lanka, which lies off the southeast coast of India. It is a very hot country out there in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a wholly tropical climate. They are in the northern hemisphere, so our winter months are theirs as well, but the coldest it gets is about 40 degrees, and even then, only in the highlands of the center of the country. The two rainy seasons for the island, the monsoons, fall during the spring and fall. The spring monsoon afflicts the western side of the island, while the fall monsoon brings the rains to the other side of the island. And when I say rain, I mean RAIN. They see up to a 100 inches of rain a month. By comparison, New York City sees 50 inches a year! That's a crazy amount of rain. Good thing the ocean is right there for it to run off into.
Sri Lanka has a Department of Meteorology within their Ministry of Disaster Management, however the site hasn't been updated since late October. Perhaps they are waiting for the next monsoon.

Switzerland

Posted by Ryan

Switzerland is a beautiful mountainous country in south-central Europe. The country is known for it's strident neutrality as much as it's chocolate, Alps, army knives and Misses. The weather is Alpine, of course, as the country is parked squarely in the Alps. This means it undulates depending on the elevation one finds oneself at. The valleys, including those in which the larger cities are found, can have a typically temperature warm summer/cold winter dichotomy, with all the humidity inherent with being as close to the Mediterranean as they are. OF course, the mountains are quite chilly and have snow on them year round at the peak. The valleys tend to have a "fohm" which is a micro sized version of the American Chinook, which means periods of warm air due to downsloping in the valleys.
I was in Switzerland for a couple of days in 2009 on my personal European adventure, and while I stayed in Zurich, it rained in heavy doses a couple of times, and I took the time to find MeteoSwiss, which was most helpful. Of course, how often do you get to walk the streets of Zurich? I got very wet anyways. MeteoSwiss is the colloquial name for the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology in Switzerland, essentially the Swiss Weather Service. As with most things Swiss, the site is very well organized. It comes with all the features one could ask for in a weather site as well, from the radar and satellite, to the available numerical weather models, like the COSMO, a proprietary model the meteorologists at MeteoSwiss rely on. My favorite page, for some reason is this one, a stark, unflinching look at the staff of Swiss meteorologists. Like I said, I used MeteoSwiss when I was in Europe, and it is one of the better weather sites around. I'm saying this in comparison not only to other governmental sites, but even to commercial sites. It's a solid site.

Panama

Posted by Ryan

There is a reason so many people died digging out the Panama Canal. It's hot and damp there, right for bugs that carry infectious diseases and heat exhaustion, which was disastrous in an era where medicine was not advanced and workers were not treated well. Panama is the isthmus between Central and South America and well within the tropics. While there is enough coastline for everyone to have a beach to visit, the country is very, very hot. The water does little to modify temperatures, only making things muggier in the narrow stripe of land. The north side of the country tends to be rainier, as during the rainy season (coinciding with hurricane season) activity tends to come off of the Caribbean. Panama is a flat nation, so relief is hard to come by in terms of temperatures.
The Gerencia de Hidrometeorologia is the service in Panama. There are no shortage of maps on their site, from the section labeled "maps" under the services drop down to satellite and radar images. One thing that struck me was the warning currently in place for light rain, it is issued by latitude, given the east-west orientation of the country. Another is that, given the major waterway bisecting the country, there is no mention of the Panama Canal that I can find anywhere on the site. Interesting indeed. It's a solid, well put together site, however, and it's easy to see that if there is a locally issued forecast for the canal it is in good hands.

Russia

Posted by Ryan

Russia, of course, is the largest country in the world. It spans the eastern extent of Europe and the northern reaches of Asia, and has almost every type of climate you can have at their latitude. The vast majority of the country, generally anything on the interior of the country is subject to a wide temperature spread from the some times hot summers to chilly winters. And by chilly, I mean on the order of regularly -60F in many parts of the country in the winter. The heat can sometimes be unbearable as well, with temperatures reaching the 90s during heart waves.
The Moscow area is similar to that of the Great Lakes of the US, if a little cooler annually, owing to an altitude that is higher than that in the Great Lakes. They are able to advect moisture from both the Arctic Ocean in the winter (contributing to heavy snows, a similar problem for St. Petersburg and many parts of Siberia) and the Black sea in the summer, which can in some instances provide some severe thunderstorms in parts of eastern Russia. The major areas that tend to have a different climate than those I have mentioned are along the Black Sea and in southern Russia, east of the Moscow area.
And what IS the climate along the Black Sea? It's very humid and warmer than is found to the north. The proximity to a warm body of water tempers winter time temperatures as well, though elevation just off the coast can induce some substantial snows there too. Found in this area is Sochi, the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
In the interior, southern portion of the country, they tend to be very dry. This, as I mentioned, leads to extraordinary fluctuations in the temperatures. The best example is the Siberian city of Yakutsk. It is the coldest city in the world... in the winter. In the summer, temperatures are higher than found in Moscow, regularly climbing above 80. In the winter however, things tend to change. In January, their record high is 21 degrees. Their RECORD high in January. They have an AVERAGE high of -39 degrees. Their average low is -50. Ye gods. The record low, if you are still interested in visiting Yakutsk is -83. Wear longjohns.
The Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring is the monitoring and forecasting service for the broad, expansive, enormous country. They have a website, as linked, but unfortunately I haven't found an English link there yet. Frankly, I have no idea how to parse Cyrillic, so I hope you have found my dissertation informative!

Kosovo

Posted by Ryan

Kosovo isn't an internationally recognized nation yet. It is recognized by the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, but not other influential nations, like Russia, Brazil, Mexico or China. It is located north of Macedonia and south of Serbia, and was a former territory in Yugoslavia. Kosovo is set in the Balkan mountains and has a high elevation. The country is far enough inland that the the Mediterranean's influence is somewhat allayed. The temperature can warm dramatically in the summer, but while thunderstorms can still clip Greece and the Croatian coast in the winter, Kosovo is more likely to see snow through the winter. The only real influence that the Mediterranean has is on overall moisture in Kosovo, particularly in the winter, when systems tend to dig further south.
Kosovo's status as recently independent means they have not yet developed a weather service for their country.

A message from New Zealand’s Met Service

Posted by Ryan

It is customary for us to alert the foreign weather services when we have written one of out pieces on their nation and service, and sometimes, we are lucky enough to have them write back. Not all of the e-mails are necessarily informative, but they are appreciated nonetheless. The Met Service's Weather Ambassador Bob McDavitt was kind enough to write back to us after reading our post on the country and his organization. His e-mail was very informative!

Hi there Ryan Henning

Thanks or your email enquiry.

I’ve read that post of yours about NZ and metservice.com , and I can confirm that it reads OK , and gives a fair and honest reflection of New Zealand climate and MetService. NZ is located in the roaring forties , in a zone where winds from the warm moist tropics clash with winds from the chilly Antarctic, resulting in a medley of pattern and chaos. MetService technicians are kept busy capturing this pattern (observations) and our computers are kept busy extrapolating it into the future so that our skilled experienced forecasters can tweak this into weather forecast delivered via any means and media possible. Our subsidiary , Metra, hosts Weatherscape—the software/hardware program used by BBC to show weather on TV. TV5 of Philippines is the latest of several TV companies around the world signing on this delightful product. As you know, weather can unravel different in the real world from the ideas gleaned from isobar-land. Some of our recent blogs have candidly reviewed our verifications and how when they dip we change procedures.

The "blog" to which he has referred to can be found here. Thanks to Mr. McDavitt and the entire Met Service for their hospitality and information!

Ukraine

Posted by Ryan

The Ukraine is one of the larger entities that broke away from the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago, and is found on the northern shore of the Black Sea in eastern Europe. Since it is further east, away from the Atlantic, the interior of the Ukraine can see a wide range of temperatures, from quite warm in the summer to much cooler in the winter. The southern coast and the Crimean peninsula are moderated by that very same Black Sea. Still, the Baltic is a greater source for moisture than the Black sea, and the northern part of the country sees more precipitation annually than the southern half, especially in the winter when systems rarely climb out of the Mediterranean. In the winter, moisture filters better into the southern half of the country, but it manifests itself more typically as a very dense fog that covers much of the Crimean peninsula and interior parts of the country.
The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center is the governing body for weather in the Ukraine. I graciously linked you to the English version of the site, which is full of surprises. They have an archive for various sites across the country in the "weather in the past" section that you can find data all the way back to 2002. Also, if you look at the top of their site, it states that they are from "the Chernobyl Catastrophy [sic]", which is an interesting statement that I am trying to find the meaning too. The satellite, too, is perhaps the best in eastern Europe, but doesn't appear to work well on the English version of the site. I am struggling to find a good background on the service, however, but I do know they put out a great product.

New Zealand

Posted by Ryan

We're swinging down to the southern Hemisphere for a check of another foreign nation. This time, we're going to New Zealand, one of the most isolated nations (geographically) on earth. It is at about the same latitude as the Ohio Valley (if you reverse north and south, of course) but the weather really isn't anything alike. New Zealand is modified by the vast ocean that surrounds them, and is often cooler than other locations at their latitude, owing in part to southerly, Antarctic winds. The sea between Australia and New Zealand tends to be a breeding ground for low pressure. The western coasts, particularly on the South Island, are rather wet, though mountains in the center make the eastern and central parts of New Zealand much drier.
The New Zealand Met Service is clearly very tech savvy. In fact, they are a .com, whereas most international services are .(country code). In fact, the US weather service is a .gov. The New Zealand Met Service, now that I think about it, is the only .com I've ever seen. They also are promoting their mobile service, another unique feature and another illustration. The site has a link to the radar and city forecasts, while various discussions are found lower on the page. Pretty cool to have such a nice, single page layout. (Also, New Zealand's Met Service has a Twitter feed, @metservice. They are all over social media)

Malawi

Posted by Ryan

Time for another trip aroun the world, one we haven't taken for a while. This trip takes us to Malawi, which is found in southern Africa, riding the northwestern border with Mozambique. On the eastern border of the country is Lake Malawi, an enormous body of water that lies in the southern reaches of Africa's Rift Valley. Malawi lies in the tropics and generally contends with rainy and dry season that other tropical nations do. This means they have their wettest weather from November to April (they are in the southern Hemisphere, but barely) and dry off in the other months. Being a tropical nation, Malawi can be very warm, but the fact that it is on a giant lake means humidity can deter actual temperatures from rising to levels they otherwise would, and the Great Rift Valley is, well, a valley. This means it is surrounded by highlands, which also allay some of the temperatures. In fact, some of the highlands in the north of the country can see winter lows dipping into the 40s.
Malawi has good relations with the Western World, and it's good standing has perhaps helped Malawi Meteorological Services develop and maintain themselves. Their site is clean and efficient with weather forecasts on the primary page, both a discussion and a graphical forecast by region. Not only do they provide current weather forecasts, but they have brief articles on various topics that might be of interest to a readerm and they express them in layman's terms, something I myself certainly have trouble with. There is also information on how to become a meteorologist, which is a very thorough on the path to becoming a meteorologist. While the MMS may not have as much current weather data on their site (it is a small country, after all) they are more informative on the field of meteorology than almost all of their peers.