How accurate are our weather and climate measurements?
By Dr. Jay Lehr, Terigi Ciccone |January 5th, 2021
The accuracy and integrity of weather and climate measurements have always been a concern. However, errors and omissions were not as consequential in the past as they are now. A hundred or even fifty years ago, our major weather concerns were more limited to local weather. When we have a flight from NYC to LAX, we need to know more detailed and reliable weather information, like is it snowing in St. Louis where we have a layover? Or the farmer in Nebraska who needs to see the spring wheat production forecast in Ukraine. He needs the best possible information to better estimate the number of acres of winter wheat he should plant for today’s global markets.
We especially need better and more reliable information to decide what actions we should consider preparing for climate changes.
While scientists, engineers, and software programmers know the importance and the need for this data accuracy, the general public is not aware of how challenging these tasks can be.
https://www.cfact.org/2021/01/05/how-accurate-are-our-weather-and-climate-measurements/
