I’ve played with WxSim…it would be wrong of me to claim I’d used it and all it’s features in a meteorologically significant way! I’m amazed by how well it can simulate/forecast conditions so well.
Having an enquiring IT mind, the question arises “How do forecast models work…at a code level”? Now I’m sure that WxSim is an incredibly complex program and I don’t think Tom would release his proprietary code for me to play with (although I doubt if I’d understand it well enough even if he did).
Does anyone know of any simple simulation/forecasting models (with source code) that are available to play with? I’ve had a Google and couldn’t find anything, but maybe I was Googling for the wrong words? More complex models (with code) would be interesting as well, but I’d prefer to start with something simpler!
I hesitate to encourage this. I forsee your kids running wild on the street while you are lost in a world of esoteric mathematics and coding, and weather-watch grows dusty and cobwebby. But, since you ask, but here’s a public domain model (I doubt it’s simple) that I found with a google of “weather modelling software”. WRF, source code appears to be downloadable http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/mm5/ http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/
That looks like th kind of software that would leave my kids running wild on the street while I was lost in a world of esoteric mathematics and coding, with weather-watch growing dusty and cobwebby #-o Just going back to FORTRAN after too many years fills me with dread. It was never one of my favourite languages.
I think I need something between this and a simple 10 line random weather condition generator! I’ll take a look at the documentation for the model though…it might give me enough clues about how it works to put my mind at ease!