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There are three types of weather forecasts on the East Central Illinois Weather website. There is the standard weather forecast issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Lincoln, IL and there is a forecast produced by Weather Simulator (WXSIM). There is also a forecast called yr.no. This forecast is produced by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. All three of these forecasts are discussed in detail below.


National Weather Service (NWS)       Weather Simulator (WXSIM)  

yr.no Forecast  

Current NWS and WXSIM Forecast Comparison       Historical NWS and WXSIM Forecast Comparison  


National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast - The National Weather Service (NWS) provides weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. NWS data and products form a national information database and infrastructure which can be used by other governmental agencies, the private sector, the public, and the global community. The NWS issues warnings and statements for severe and potentially dangerous weather, such as tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, heavy snowfall, dense fog, and high winds. The NWS also produces public forecasts out to 7 days in text and graphical format, generates local aviation forecasts, and launches weather balloons twice daily. The NWS gathers data that forms the backbone of the United States and World Climate data record. For more information about the National Weather Service (NWS), see the NWS website.

Weather Simulator (WXSIM) Forecast - The Weather Simulator (WXSIM) is an interactive local atmospheric modeling system. WXSIM is software that utilizes local weather data with national forecast model data to produce a forecast like no other. WXSIM is a very unique software package - over 25 years in the making - for modeling, forecasting, or simply studying weather. It is perhaps best described as an "interactive local atmospheric model". It can be initialized with current data, some optionally downloaded from the internet, and then used to model the weather for the next few days, but with the option to interact with the program and allow the user to input their own forecasting skill and knowledge. There are over 25 different variables modeled or used by the program, as well as several other functions such as temperature conversions and sunrise and sunset calculations. When WXSIM is used properly, its forecasts are of professional quality, often as good as or better than the standard NWS forecast, especially since customization allows the forecasts to be highly specific for a certain geographical area. Its interactive nature also makes it a great learning tool, either for amateur weather enthusiasts or meteorology students. Fore more information about WXSIM, see the WXSIM website.

yr.no Forecast - yr.no is the joint online weather service from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. yr.no is unique in Europe because of our very detailed weather forecasts and our free data policy. yr.no offers weather forecasts in English and Norwegian for more than 700,000 places in Norway and 6.3 million places worldwide. Weather forecasts on yr.no are based on data provided by Norwegian Meteorological Institute and its international partner institutions such as European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). For more information on yr.no, see the yr.no website.














 
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