The cold air that has been spilling into the Midwest this week will push through the Northeast and Southeast by Friday. For sites like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the high temperature for the day will come before sunrise, at about the time the cold front arrives, since our contest day is defined as beginning at 0600 UTC (1 am EST). Then temperatures should fall steadily all day, leading to a minimum temperature a 1 am EST the next night. Let's forecast Friday's Tmax for Pittsburgh and see what happens.
Question: The MOS temperatures shown below are about 50-60 F, but on the National Weather Service page, they show Friday's high as 36 F! Did the NWS make a mistake?
Forecaster | Tmax, deg F (error) | Comment | Day Score |
---|---|---|---|
OBSERVED | 54 | Tmax FINAL. | |
Reference | |||
CLIMATE | 37.6 (-16.4) | NCDC Climate Normals, 1981-2010 | 0 |
MOS | |||
GFS-MOS-18-DAY02 | 60 (6) | 1.6 | |
GFS-MOS-00-DAY01 | 60 (6) | 1.6 | |
GFS-MOS-12-DAY02 | 59 (5) | 1.9 | |
GFS-MOS-06-DAY01 | 59 (5) | 1.9 | |
GFS-MOS-06-DAY02 | 58 (4) | 2.1 | |
NAM-MOS-12-DAY01 | 50 (-4) | 2.1 | |
NAM-MOS-12-DAY02 | 51 (-3) | 2.4 | |
NAM-MOS-00-DAY01 | 51 (-3) | 2.4 | |
NAM-MOS-00-DAY00 | 51 (-3) | 2.4 | |
GFS-MOS-00-DAY00 | 51 (-3) | 2.4 | |
GFS-MOS-12-DAY01 | 55 (1) | 2.9 | |
GFS-MOS-18-DAY01 | 54 (0) | 3.2 |