What does this mean?

[Cstok]

From today's MD:

LATEST SURFACE ANALYSIS SHOWS WEAKENING SURFACE COLD FRONT EXTENDING
ROUGHLY FROM MHK-P28-GAG. SCATTERED LOW/MID CLOUDS EAST OF THE
BOUNDARY HAVE RETARDED DAYTIME HEATING SOMEWHAT. HOWEVER...STRONG
HEATING IS OCCURRING IMMEDIATELY WEST OF BOUNDARY OVER CENTRAL KS
INTO THE NORTHERN TX PANHANDLE. THESE STEEP LOW LEVEL LAPSE RATES
COUPLED WITH INCREASING SURFACE DEWPOINTS ARE EXPECTED TO HELP BREAK
CAP IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS. LATEST RUC GUIDANCE SUGGESTS INITIATION
WILL OCCUR NEAR SURFACE FRONT/DRYLINE INTERSECTION NEAR P28. OTHER
STORMS ARE LIKELY TO DEVELOP NORTHEASTWARD ALONG FRONT INTO EASTERN
KS...AND PERHAPS SOUTHWARD INTO NORTHERN OK LATER THIS AFTERNOON.
VERTICAL SHEAR PROFILES APPEAR FAVORABLE FOR SUPERCELL STORMS
CAPABLE OF LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.


What does P28 mean?

 

[Kiel Ortega]

P28 is the identifier for Medicine Lodge KS ASOS station

 

[Cstok]

Is there a location that has those listed out? Either on a map or on a list?

 

[Kiel Ortega]

http://weather.gov/tg/siteloc.shtml

also http://www.faa.gov/asos/map/map.htm

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Originally posted by Cstok
From today's MD:

SCATTERED LOW/MID CLOUDS EAST OF THE
BOUNDARY HAVE RETARDED DAYTIME HEATING SOMEWHAT. ?

Not sure about your origional question, but how about this? Retarded daytime heating??? I've never seen that one.

 

[rdale]

Retard: To be delayed.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Here's a locator map for the Great Plains. It's from Digital Atmosphere, so if you see a missing station please let me know so I can get it added.
http://www.stormtrack.org/plainsstations.gif

Tim

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Originally posted by rdale
Retard: To be delayed.

Ahh.. thanks! Learned something new..

 

[B Ozanne]

Gotta hand it to the guys at the SPC. Its always great giving out that public friendly information like P28. That is excellent customer relations.

Last time I checked we aren't using teletype anymore. I think they can afford to spell out the whole station.

 

[Jeff Lawson]

Originally posted by B Ozanne
Gotta hand it to the guys at the SPC. Its always great giving out that public friendly information like P28. That is excellent customer relations.

Except, the primary/intended consumers of mesoscale discussions are forecasters at local offices.

I mean, let's get serious here: if you can understand the meteorological terminology in a mesoscale discussion, you should probably be able to figure out (or already know) P28 is a station identifier. And, even if you didn't, there's a pretty big clue in the first line of the discussion in question: "LATEST SURFACE ANALYSIS SHOWS WEAKENING SURFACE COLD FRONT EXTENDING ROUGHLY FROM MHK-P28-GAG." Obviously, those are all geographic points.

EDIT: Just to clarify - my comment isn't directed toward Cstok. His question was valid. My beef is with the idea that the SPC somehow fails the American taxpayer by using an established station identifier in a discussion product intended for internal NWS consumption.

 

[mikegeukes]

List of stations ids:
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/stations.txt
http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/surface/

Mike

 

[rdale]

"My beef is with the idea that the SPC somehow fails the American taxpayer by using an established station identifier in a discussion product intended for internal NWS consumption.

I think we can agree that by having AccuWeather issue all MCD's in the future - problems like this would be avoided...

 

[B Ozanne]

I don't think they are failing the American taxpayer. I am sure the forecasters in that region have no question where P28 is. For somebody like me its a pain in the ass though. I have to stop and take a few mintues to research that location.

My point was that the abbreviations are from a dead era. When they were trying to save money and conserve space. I'm these people are all excellent typers and they don't pay by the character anymore to transmit this data.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by B Ozanne
I don't think they are failing the American taxpayer. I am sure the forecasters in that region have no question where P28 is. For somebody like me its a pain in the ass though. I have to stop and take a few mintues to research that location.

My point was that the abbreviations are from a dead era. When they were trying to save money and conserve space. I'm these people are all excellent typers and they don't pay by the character anymore to transmit this data.

I kind of see Bill's point, but what other abbreviations then? TCU? MCS? BRN? SRH? Certainly for a discussion not aimed at the general population, they don't need to actually write out towering cumulus, mesoscale convective system, bulk Richardson number, storm-relative helicity, and so forth. Or states (like MN, OK, KS, etc). I agree though, it is tough some times to run into a station ID and have no idea where it is (happens quite often unless the town is in OK or MN -- places I've lived -- or is a big city/town in a Plains state), but I'm not sure it's that bad, seeing how it take me a good 10-15 seconds to bring up a station ID list and figure out where the station is.

EDIT: Apparently, I couldn't find the difference between right and write... Long day.

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Originally posted by B Ozanne
Gotta hand it to the guys at the SPC. Its always great giving out that public friendly information like P28. That is excellent customer relations.

Last time I checked we aren't using teletype anymore. I think they can afford to spell out the whole station.

One would have to consider the audience/customer that they are aiming towards. Considering probably only the weather savvy read the MCDs, using abbreviations is no big deal. It's just like aviation...gotta learn the code to be able to fit in the community. Further, given the media probably reads these MCDs, they SHOULD be able to interpret them and given the discussion from the other thread, most of the public will be getting the SPC information via the media.