College of DuPage Weather: A Comprehensive Overview

The College of DuPage (COD) offers a comprehensive weather resource, providing a wide array of satellite, radar, upper-air, and surface observations, as well as model output. This robust platform supports both educational endeavors and general weather monitoring. The COD weather resources are actively developed and welcome user suggestions for feature enhancements.

Website Features and Technical Aspects

The College of DuPage weather website is designed for optimal viewing at a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, with a recommended resolution of 1920x1080 or greater, as most imagery is rendered at 1600x900 pixels. The website utilizes data from various sources, including the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the GOES-R series satellites.

Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) Bands

The ABI is an instrument on the GOES-R series of satellites that samples specific regions of the light spectrum through 16 different bands. Each band has unique characteristics and applications:

ABI 02 (Visible Red Band): Samples the same wavelength as legacy visible products but with a higher spatial resolution of 500 meters, compared to the previous 1km resolution.
ABI 07: Senses the widest range of temperatures and is useful for fire detection.
ABI 09 (Mid-Level Water Vapor Band): Similar to the legacy water vapor band.
ABI 13: Often produces cleaner-looking images compared to band 14.

All ABI bands have their uses, but these highlighted bands possess particularly interesting characteristics.

Image Update Frequency

Imagery from mesoscale regions updates every minute. In some cases, the two mesoscale regions can be overlapped to produce imagery every 30 seconds. CONUS (Continental United States) imagery updates once every five minutes for most sectors.

Mesoscale Scanning

Both GOES-East and GOES-West satellites can support up to two mesoscale scanning regions. The satellite's ABI scans each of these regions once per minute, or one region every 30 seconds. This rapid update frequency can surpass that of many weather radars.

Any National Weather Service (NWS) office or National Center (such as SPC or NHC) can request a mesoscale domain to sample a specific region or feature of interest. This allows for rapid updates during severe weather events, fire weather, hurricanes, and other significant occurrences.

GOES-17 Cooling System Issue

GOES-17 (currently GOES-West) has a known issue with its cooling system, which affects the data quality of a subset of the satellite's ABI bands daily and seasonally. This is an issue inherent to the satellite itself and cannot be resolved externally.

Image Archival

Due to disk space limitations, images are typically kept on the COD website for three to four days. However, COD has partnered with Iowa State University to archive most of its base satellite products.

Bug Reporting

Users who identify any issues or bugs on the website are encouraged to report them.

Read also: Phoenix Suns' New Center

Weather Forecast for College of DuPage Area

Here is a detailed weather forecast for the College of DuPage area:

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 28°F. South-southwest wind around 5 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 61°F. Breezy, with a southwest wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 30°F. West wind 5 to 15 mph becoming north-northwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
Saturday: A 40% chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37°F. North-northeast wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Saturday Night: A 40% chance of snow before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 20°F. North wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 32°F.
Sunday Night: A 40% chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21°F.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 36°F.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24°F.
Tuesday: A chance of rain after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41°F.
Tuesday Night: A chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28°F.
Wednesday: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 49°F.
Wednesday Night: Rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38°F.
Thursday: Rain likely.

Comprehensive Weather Sites

For additional weather information, consider these resources:

National Weather Service (NWS): Responsible for collecting and disseminating weather data and issuing official forecasts, watches, warnings, and advisories for the United States.
Weather Underground: A private weather service offering observations from a network of private weather stations and radar imagery.
National Center for Atmospheric Research: Features graphics and satellite, radar, upper-air, and surface observations, as well as model output.
Eric Snodgrass Weather Page: Maintained by Eric Snodgrass, focusing on agricultural weather applications.
Shawn Milrad Weather Links: A curated list of weather links focusing on forecasting, maintained by Professor Shawn Milrad of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Champaign-Urbana Weather Resources

For weather information specific to the Champaign-Urbana area:

National Weather Service Forecast Office, Lincoln, IL: Issues forecasts, warnings, and advisories for Central Illinois.
Current Conditions and Forecasts for Champaign-Urbana via NWS: Provides current weather, radar, and warnings.
Current Conditions and Forecasts for Champaign-Urbana via Weather Underground: An alternative source for current weather, radar, and warnings.
Latest Central Illinois Radar via Weather Underground: Offers radar imagery, including velocity data.
Champaign-Urbana Climate Data: Historical weather data, including monthly summaries and daily records, courtesy of the Illinois State Climatologist and the Illinois State Water Survey.

Surface Observations

National Center for Atmospheric Research: Provides classic surface station plots and raw METARs.
Aviation Weather: Similar to the NCAR surface page.
College of DuPage Weather: Offers analyzed and unanalyzed surface maps and mesoanalysis.
University of Illinois: Features surface plots and unanalyzed station plots with an archive.
Weather Prediction Center Surface Analyses: Analyzed surface maps for various regions of North America.
24-Hour Temperature Change: Displays temperature changes compared to the previous day, courtesy of the Penn State Department of Meteorology.
Unofficial List of Record-Breaking Temperatures: A map of stations approaching or breaking temperature records, maintained by Professor Bob Hart of Florida State University.

Upper-Air Observations

National Center for Atmospheric Research: Analyzed upper-air maps and sounding data from around North America.
College of DuPage Weather: Analyzed and unanalyzed upper-air maps and mesoanalysis.
Storm Prediction Center Soundings: Upper-air soundings plotted with SHARPpy software.

Satellite Observations

National Center for Atmospheric Research: National and regional satellite views of the United States.
College of DuPage Weather: National, regional, and local satellite images of various regions in North America, with options to overlay surface observations and geographical features.
College of DuPage GOES-16 Imagery: Preliminary and non-operational data from the next-generation weather satellite, GOES-16.

Radar Observations

National Weather Service: Links to imagery from all NWS Doppler radars, along with regional and national composites.
College of DuPage Weather: Data from all NWS radars and national, regional, and local composites, featuring dual-polarization data and animations.
National Center for Atmospheric Research: Imagery from all NWS radars and national and regional composites.
Weather Underground: National and regional composites and data from individual radars.
Intellicast: National and regional radar composites.

Forecasts

Weather Prediction Center: Official NWS forecast maps and heavy precipitation outlooks.
National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD): Maps generated from forecasts produced at NWS forecast offices.
Storm Prediction Center: Outlooks and watches for severe weather, including thunderstorms and tornadoes.
National Hurricane Center: Outlooks, watches, and warnings for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins.
Climate Prediction Center: Forecasts for the next 6-10 days, 8-14 days, 30 days, and beyond.
College of DuPage Weather: Database of current NWS text products.
SunsetWx: Check the quality of the next sunrise or sunset.

Computer-Generated Model Maps

National Center for Atmospheric Research: Graphics from the NAM, GFS, and RAP models.
Penn State e-Wall: Weather data and model output from the NAM, GFS, and GEM models, featuring four-panel maps and ensemble maps.
Pivotal Weather: Graphics from various models, allowing for point-and-click soundings, including high-resolution models and severe weather parameters.
College of DuPage Weather: Graphics and point-and-click soundings from models including the NAM, high-resolution NAM, GFS, and RAP, also including severe-weather parameters.
Tropical Tidbits: Graphics and point-and-click and aerially-averaged soundings from various models over different global domains.
Short-Range Ensemble Forecast System (SREF): SREF output from the Storm Prediction Center, geared toward severe weather forecasting.
High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR): Output from the operational HRRR and experimental versions.
NCAR WRF Ensemble: A 10-member convection-allowing WRF ensemble run by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, including a point-and-click ensemble sounding generator and historical runs.
Philippe Papin's HRRR Site: HRRR viewer developed by Philippe Papin of the State University of New York at Albany geared toward the WxChallenge.
Dynamic Tropopause Maps: GFS-based dynamic tropopause maps from the University of Utah.

Gridded Model Data and MOS

MOS: List of all stations for which model output statistics (MOS) forecasts are produced from the National Weather Service.
GFSX Ensemble MOS: 21 different MREF-based ensemble MOS forecasts for locations around the United States.
MOS Maps: Forecast maps based entirely on MOS output from the National Weather Service.
MOS Errors: MOS errors for the current and previous three forecast cycles, courtesy of the Penn State Department of Meteorology.
SREF Plumes: Graphs detailing the output, mean, and spread from the Short Range Ensemble Forecast System (SREF) at hundreds of locations, courtesy of the Storm Prediction Center.
Model Extraction Text Page: Extraction page for NAM and GFS model output, courtesy of Illinois alum Earl Barker.

Severe Weather Resources

Storm Prediction Center: Official NWS Convective Outlooks and watches.
Watch/Warning Map: Clickable county-based watch and warning map from the Weather Underground.
SPC Mesoanalysis: RAP-based mesoanalysis, useful in various weather regimes.
MPAS Model Output: High-resolution model output to assist field projects.
Lightning Map: Real-time lightning maps over North America, Europe, and Oceania.
Tornado Forecasting Workshop: Workshop designed and presented by SPC Lead Forecaster Rich Thompson.
SPC Severe Thunderstorm Forecasting Lecture Series: Video lectures from SPC's Rich Thompson and Dr. Ariel Cohen along with Professor Steven Cavallo of the University of Oklahoma.

Tropical Weather Resources

National Hurricane Center: Official forecasts, outlooks, watches, and warnings for the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific basins.
Tropical Tidbits Reconnaissance Page: View recon data in real time.
University of Wisconsin Tropical Satellite Page: Satellite-derived products for storms and ocean basins around the globe.
Colorado State University Satellite-based Tropical Cyclone Guidance: Satellite-derived tropical cyclone products for active storms around the globe.
RAL Tropical Page: Real-time guidance for worldwide tropical cyclones from the Research Applications Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Tropical Models: Tropical guidance interface from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, featuring a storm archive.
Sea-Surface Temperature Analyses: Satellite-derived sea-surface temperatures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hydrometeorology Resources

NOAA Precipitation Analyses: Analyses of past precipitation amounts.
National Snow Analyses: Analyses of snow depth, snow water equivalent, and more, with an extensive archive.
Drought Monitor: Monitors dry conditions across the United States, updated weekly.
CoCoRAHS Illinois Observations: Latest observations from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network across Illinois.

Past Weather Resources

Weather Prediction Center Surface Analysis Archive: Archived analyzed surface maps going back to 2005.
Colorado State University Surface Analysis Archive: Analyzed surface maps going back to 2000.
Hemispheric 5-Day 500mb Height Anomalies and Surface Maps: Evolution of the hemispheric pattern over the last 5 days, courtesy of Penn State University.
NCAR Image Archive: Archived satellite, radar, soundings, and surface maps from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Plymouth State University Make Your Own Maps: Interface to create custom surface and upper-air maps, supporting real-time and archived data.
University of Wyoming Upper-Air: Archive of soundings going back to 1973 and analyzed and unanalyzed upper-air maps going back to 2012.
National Weather Service Text Product Archive: Searchable archive of NWS text products going back to 2001, courtesy of Iowa State University.
MOS Archive: Download archived MOS data as .csv files going back to 2000, courtesy of Iowa State University.
20th Century and NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Map Generator: Generates surface pressure/500 mb height maps from historical data sets, courtesy of the University of Quebec Montreal.
North American Regional Reanalysis: View 4-panel maps going back to 1979, courtesy of Penn State University.
SPC Severe Weather Events Archive: View storms reports, upper-air maps, soundings, SPC products, and more for significant severe weather events going back to 2000.
Midwest Climate Watch: View current climate information across the Midwest including high and low temperatures and precipitation amounts.

Numerical Weather Prediction

Numerical weather prediction data is used to model the behavior of the atmosphere. Supercomputers ingest current atmospheric conditions and solve complex physics calculations to produce a time-series of data. These models forecast deterministically, creating an exact expectation of the future state of the atmosphere. The accuracy of these models diminishes further into the future. The solutions each model generates are re-run several times each day using updated current conditions.

Forecast reliability can be improved by interrogating the degree to which the solution changes as newer runs are generated. Models from NCEP, CMC, and ECMWF fall into two distinct categories: Deterministic and Ensemble.

Read also: About Grossmont Community College

Deterministic models depict a single solution. Inaccuracy is inherent as a result of never being able to perfectly sample, ingest, and calculate the atmosphere and its physics at the smallest temporal and spatial scales.
Ensemble models depict confidence in a given solution by running a number of simultaneous solutions where initial conditions or key aspects of the model physics are slightly altered to determine how sensitive the forecast solution is to variation.

COD generates customized renderings of this model data at a variety of output domain sizes. Some models come paired with point forecast sounding data, accessible by click/tap. Comparison tools, such as Previous Run and Model Comparisons, aid in determining forecast confidence, and Height Comparisons aid in understanding the vertical profile of applicable parameters.

Meteorology Courses at College of DuPage

The College of DuPage offers a range of meteorology courses, including:

An introduction to meteorology, covering solar radiation, global circulation, environmental issues, winds, stability, precipitation processes, weather systems, and severe weather.
A quantitative first look at the science of meteorology, examining physical concepts using algebraic methods.
A course covering operational, physical, and dynamical meteorology to provide an overall understanding of atmospheric science.
An in-depth study of meteorological phenomena relating to severe thunderstorms, El Nino/Southern Oscillation events, and tropical storms, including severe weather spotting, weather radar, atmospheric soundings, tornadogenesis, El Nino, tropical meteorology, hurricanes, and an introduction to numerical weather prediction.
Exploration of basic physical principles, their relation to weather events, and weather's impact on society.
An in-depth study of meteorological phenomena with short temporal and small spatial scales and their associated threats, including flash floods and tornadoes.
An in-depth study of severe weather forecasting and analysis, including nowcasting. Students monitor events prior to and during severe weather events using real-time radar and other data sources, and study weather initiation and evolution. Local field trips to observe severe weather first-hand may be included.
A field study experience to study thunderstorms in their natural environment, combining knowledge and experience.
A study of day-to-day weather patterns with an emphasis on understanding the basics of meteorological processes and forecasting, including the use of maps needed to analyze current conditions and forecast weather locally and across the nation.
A continuation of Weather Analysis and Forecasting I, where students monitor current weather conditions locally and across the nation using a fully-operational weather laboratory.
A continuation of Weather Analysis and Forecasting II, with an emphasis on independent analysis of weather events, forecast preparation, and mastery of hand data analysis. Students monitor current weather conditions locally and across the nation using a fully-operational weather laboratory.
A continuation of Advanced Weather Analysis and Forecasting I, where students specifically track and evaluate their forecasting accuracy locally and across the nation.
An introduction to the earth's climate, climate change, and the interactions between climate and the global environment, investigating factors contributing to climate and global change, including regional drought and cataclysmic climate change.

Weather Club at COD

The College of DuPage has its own Weather Club, which holds meetings throughout the school year featuring presentations from professionals in the field. The club organizes social events, field trips, and community benefit activities. All are welcome to participate and join.

tags: #College #of #DuPage #weather #forecast