Discussions

Why is ebrandon weather so different from the Weather Network?  
 
Ebrandon says it's 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. The Weathwr Network says sunny and no rain.

ebrandon probably pulls their weather data from Environment Canada. Their forecast is for 60% chance of rain tomorrow.

That's correct. Forecasting is of course not an exact science. Weather page data comes from Environment Canada, whose meteorologists may at times see things differently from other outlets meteorologists. Pick your poison I suppose  
In situations of probability rather than certainty it's a good idea to consider multiple sources, but when the chips are down if I had to pick one I'd go with EC.

I love that the amounts are posted, so we can see how much rain we have had.

I have 4 different websites which they differ at sometimes so today in the afternoon the website:  
1-theweathernetwork.com says 40% rain  
2-weather.com says 15% rain  
3-accuweather.com says 51%  
4-wunderground.com says 25%  
5-then plus ebrandon shows half chance  
I guess expect a cloudy afternoon.  
I have seen days that at least 1 website would say wind east all day and the other sites would show wind west all day. How can it be? You may have NE or SE how can you have E and W at the same time

plus zero said "I have 4 different websites which they differ at sometimes so today in the afternoon the website:   1-theweathernetwork.com says 40% rain   2-weather.com says 15% rain   3-accuweather.com says 51%   4-wunderground.com says 25%   5-then plus ebrandon shows half chance   I guess expect a cloudy afternoon.   I have seen days that at least 1 website would say wind east all day and the other sites would show wind west all day. How can it be? You may have NE or SE how can you have E and W at the same time "

Well, seeing how an east wind is often indicative of our proximity and position relative to an approaching low, if rain is in the forecast in the next day or so I would believe the east wind.  
 
The prevailing winds are usually from the west, with variations to the north and south depending on the positions of surrounding systems. Because lows have winds that rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, especially if an approaching low is south of us (hence having a tendency to draw in Gulf moisture, resulting in rain), as it approaches we'll get the east wind with it.  
 
That's of course overly simplified, but that's the general gist. My grandmother always knew that east wind means change. She also has lots of saying about smoke doing this, or the leaves of the trees doing that, that are in fact reasonably accurate and have basis in fact in how it relates to environmental conditions.  
 
I dislike weather prediction that has overly-precise weather forecasts (i.e. it will be sunny at 8, but raining at 9, etc), because it's such a complex process it's really quite impossible to predict it. Lots of people are very reliant on this, and get very annoyed when it doesn't pan out (which it rarely does).  
 
I personally rely mostly on Environment Canada and I like reading the discussions regarding their forecast models because you can see where the uncertainties lie. Therefore, I can see that they're saying 60% chance of rain, for example, but also that X, Y and Z need to happen for the rain to occur, otherwise it will be a bust. It's worth having a basic understanding of how they make forecasts and how weather generally works so you can interpret what they mean when they say there's going to be an east wind, or there's an X chance of rain, etc.

Blade said "Why is ebrandon weather so different from the Weather Network?     Ebrandon says it's 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. The Weathwr Network says sunny and no rain. "

today it was sunny and very warm. So ebrandon and Environment Canada are once again wrong as there was no rain.  
 
Tonite Ebrandon weather says rain in early evening and chance of a thunderstorm clearing later in evening. Doesn''t look like any rain yet. Weather Network does not mention any rain and says tomorrow is sunny.  
 
Maybe ebrandon should use the Weather Network,  
 
Edited by Blade, 2017-08-05 20:55:45

Adam said "    Blade said "    Blade said "Why is ebrandon weather so different from the Weather Network?     Ebrandon says it's 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. The Weathwr Network says sunny and no rain. " today it was sunny and very warm. So ebrandon and Environment Canada are once again wrong as there was no rain.     Tonite Ebrandon weather says rain in early evening and chance of a thunderstorm clearing later in evening. Doesn''t look like any rain yet. Weather Network does not mention any rain and says tomorrow is sunny.     Maybe ebrandon should use the Weather Network,     Edited by Blade, 2017-08-05 20:55:45" Please be available to chime in when the same thing is reported in reverse on another day     But in all seriousness, forecasts are just predictions based on models, probability, etc. I take them as a guide and go with the flow. Expecting certainty is a recipe for a whole lotta stress and anger.   As an aside, if you're someone that likes following accuracy of predictions we have a cool feature on the same eBrandon weather page that compares what the prev day's forecasted high temp was compared to forecasted high temps for that same day on the prev days leading up   Cheers "

are fairly easy to predict in the summer, or any other season within a few degrees.  
 
What I don''t get is why EC says it''s going to rain or evening showers or a thunderstorm and we don''t get a drop of rain.  
 
I spend a lot of time down south in Texas or Arizona in the winter and if they say we are going to get a 1/4 inch of rain we 99% of the time get it. If it''s going to be a light drizzle with 1/16 of an inch of rain it usually happens. Quite often this summer EC has been saying it''s going to rain and it never happens. So does Ec base their prediction on what it is doing in B.C. and calculate that we will get the same rain in Manitoba in 2 days?  
 
Both say it is going to be sunny and a temp. around 24c today so it looks like they both will be right today.  
 
Edited by Blade, 2017-08-06 08:49:52

If EC could predict yesterday's weather!  
 
As Blade eluded to, weather prediction in the US is many times superior to weather prediction in Canada. I traveled in North Dakota a fair bit in the 80s. It wasn't uncommon to hear about tornado warnings on the radio when it was warranted. It was years before we would get tornado warnings up here.  
 
I was told that Ron Thompson, a meteorologist, couldn't forecast the weather as he predicted, he had to tell the weather as he was told by EC.  
 
Back in 1994, a big wind storm went through the Boissevain area around 2 - 3:00 AM. EC didn't say any thing about it. A radio announcer out of Bottineau, when he started his shift for that evening, looked at his weather screen and said that something big was coming. He didn't know what, but it was big. That was more than we got from EC.