METR 360 Review sheet for Exam 2

From your course syllabus, here are the topics we covered since exam 1:

4. Upper Air (we started this before the exam but did the bulk of it after)

5. Air masses (lake effect)

6. NCEP guidance products

7. Waves in the westerlies

Topic from the syllabus not adequately covered for exam 2: Vertical motion. This will be on the Final Exam.

PowerPoint presentations for all topics are available on the course website (http://employees.oneonta.edu/blechmjb/JBpages/METR360top17.html).

Labs that were graded and returned after exam 1 and before exam 2 are also subject to examination:

Upper air maps I and II

Numerical Guidance

METAR code

Lake Effect snow forecasting

Details of what you need to know for each of the topics and labs:

Upper Air:

Understand vorticity, absolute, relative, and Earth. Calculate vorticity from a map by estimating the terms that make up absolute vorticity (winds, distances, Coriolis).

Know what cold and warm advection mean and how to recognize them on the proper upper air map(s).

Know what is meant by zonal flow and meridional flow.

Understand why extratropical cyclones in the mature stage are at the front end of troughs so the circulation is not vertically stacked but tilted.

We did upper air code on exam 1 so it won’t be on exam 2.

Numerical Guidance:

Know the basic method used to produce MOS, namely regression. I won’t ask you to create a regression equation but you should know what it is. Know the limitations of MOS.

Be able to read surface progs, NAM and GFS map products, and NWS text products

Waves in the Westerlies:

Know how to use the Rossby wave equation for calculations and how to interpret the results (speed of waves). If necessary, know how to estimate the quantities needed for the Rossby wave equation using an upper air weather map.

Know what conservation of absolute vorticity means for waves in the westerlies.

Know what blocking is, as well as the phenomenon of the Omega Block.

Know what is meant by the circumpolar vortex and the made-up term polar vortex.

From labs 5 and 6, upper air maps:

Read and interpret the upper air station model from maps. Be able to draw isotherms and height contours on plotted upper air maps.

From lab 7, Guidance Products:

Be able to read and understand MOS and direct model output (a.k.a. grid interpolations).

Be able to identify the various parameters predicted by MOS and direct model output

Be able to describe or draw on a map the weather features that are consistent with numerical guidance products, i.e., Highs, Lows, fronts, troughs

From lab 9, METAR code:

Be able to read METAR code and plot numbers/symbols on a map using the proper station model.

From lab 10, Lake Effect

Know the essentials of forecasting lake effect snow.

Be able to recognize weather situations (on maps) which are conducive to lake effect or lake enhanced precipitation.

Remember, everything on this sheet won’t be on the exam but you need to review all of it.