• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Bad Soundings

Bob Hartig

Bob Hartig

EF5
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
Messages
1,781
Location
Hastings, Michigan
At the COD severe weather symposium, Roger Edwards commented about bad sounding data. It sounds like one Rawinsonde station in particular gives consistently bad data, but Roger never specified its location and I never asked him. Does anyone here know?

And, what are some common kinds of bad sounding data? I'm using skew-T's more and more, but I've still got a few things to learn about interpreting them, and I'm not at a point yet where I can look at one and think, "Hmm...faulty read." So any tips will be appreciated, particularly visual examples.
 
Thanks for the links, Rob. Looks like I've got some reading to do, but just the little I've glimpsed so far suggests that the problem is pretty widespread.
 
Kudos to Bob Maddox for really working on this project. Unfortunately the official NWS line is "there is nothing to see here, move along."
 
Good grief! I just finished reading through the links you supplied, Rob, including those embedded in the four threads, and I am absolutely floored. If that's the kind of data that is being fed into the forecast models, how on earth can we trust anything other than surface obs? Models, schmodels. This is scary!

The Tucson fiasco in particular just blows me away. Comparing Bob Maddox's description with site guidelines makes me wonder what on earth NWS officials were thinking, since the violation is so flagrant.

The most recent of the four threads looks to have been about a year ago, three years after implementation of the "new and improved" Sippicon sounding devices. Has there been any improvement at all, both in troubleshooting the technology and in the outrageously lame-ass non-communication of the NWS?
 
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