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When listing the high and low temperature for the day; are they listed midnight to midnight (for example: Tuesday 12.01 am to Tuesday 12:00 midnight) or sunrise to sunrise (Tuesday 6:00 am to Wed. 6:00 am)?
I have never really been clear about it.
Thank You
Doug
AND
I know anticipated weather is generally not predictable to a specific hour and minute but one of my greatest confusions is the way the advent of a weather event is predicted in terms of time. Such as, when a storm is expected "this evening" or "tonight" or "by morning" what general block of time is being referred to? How do you determine to say it will occur "this afternoon" vs. "this evening" vs. "tonight".
Relevance? If I get off work at 5:00 PM and a storm is expected "this evening" can I expect to be in the storm or will I get home before it hits?
Just thought I'd ask
Thanks Blair M.
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A great couple of questions and it comes up often when we talk about timing. Typically our high temperatures occur in the afternoon, this is what is on our forecast usually. If you see a high for 55, this means, during the afternoon, it will be 55 degrees. Lows are given as morning lows, if you see the low is forecasted as 30 degrees, the low will be 30 degrees during the early morning hours.
Now, sometimes, our high temperature will occur early in the day if a cold front comes in and temperatures take a nose dive in the afternoon. You'll see the high still listed but the meteorologist will tell you when that will occur if it's out of the ordinary! And if the low temperature happens say at midnight with rising temperatures by 9 am in the morning, then the meteorologist will give you that information.
Onto question #2. Blair asks about the vague terms we use in weather like "morning" or "this evening". It's different for each forecaster but as a general rule of thumb it works like this.
Overnight=From midnight on Early morning=6 to 9 am Morning=before noon Afternoon=1 to 4 pm Early evening=4 to 5 pm Evening=5 to 8 pm Night=8 to midnight
So if a storm is moving in "this evening" yes it could effect you at 5 pm for sure. We can't time things down to the minute, but once our storm usually moves in, we'll have a very good idea of how fast it is moving and when it's getting to you.
Your best bet, is to listen to the forecast and also, look at the clouds for sure! Looking at clouds is one of your best defenses to stay dry or out of the way of severe storms.
While we can't time everything out to the exact minute, we do try to give you a range of when things will happen such as "after lunchtime" or around "rush hour".
Just know, we're trying our hardest at all times to get the best weather information to you. These are just some ballpark guidelines which I personally use so they aren't solid rules at all just a guideline.
Some links on the right will take you to some cloud pages and an interesting history note on the strong storm of November 11, 1911.
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman
