Forecast Central

About Forecast Central

The idea of a national weather forecasting contest website as a teaching tool for school classes came up in about 2004. Ken Waight has since developed the idea through many versions of the website, with help from Glenn Van Knowe, Pam Barlow and many others. The original version allowed classes to choose any forecasting location from a long list, and required Tmax, Tmin and 24-hr precipitation values for each forecast.The current version is a truly national contest, as all participants forecast for the same site and single variable, specified at the beginning of each contest day.The assignment of a different site and variable each day allows us to focus the contest on the most interesting current weather events, and sometimes on ordinary situations that illustrate meteorological concepts. Feel free to send questions, complaints, comments and suggestions through the contact page.