Vol. XLII - No. 217 A sample publication - fictional office --:--:-- UTC

SYNOPTIC

Severe Storms Circular - Issued for the Southern Plains - Sample Edition
Station 000 - Fictional Sample content Film: CSU/CIRA & NOAA - Public domain

On the structure of rotating storms, observed from 22,236 miles up.

SYNOPTIC is a fictional severe-weather office. This sample edition reads real public-domain satellite film the way an old circular read the sky: patiently, in plates, with every number marked as the sample it is.

35,786km altitude - sample
4plates in this issue
1-minscan cadence - sample
Plate I. - A supercell erupts over Oklahoma Film: CSU/CIRA & NOAA, GOES visible, 15 Jun 2023 - Public domain
Plate II. - Southern Wyoming, late June Film: CSU/CIRA & NOAA, 27 Jun 2023 - Public domain

Reading IThe anvil writes first

From orbit a storm is a sentence read top-down: the overshooting top is the capital letter, the anvil its long hand across the page. All positions, speeds and readings beside these plates are sample figures for a fictional office.

SFC WND SW 25 KT - SAMPLE MLCAPE 2800 J/KG - SAMPLE
Plate III. - A tornadic supercell, West Texas Film: CSU/CIRA & NOAA, 3 May 2024 - Public domain

Reading IIRotation, in visible light

Mesocyclones do not photograph from the ground the way they turn from above. This sample edition pairs each plate with the kind of marginalia a duty forecaster leaves in the border - every figure a placeholder, every storm quite real.

SRH 400 M2/S2 - SAMPLE UPDRT 60 M/S - SAMPLE
Plate IV. - Hurricane Harvey finds its eye Film: NOAA, GOES-16, 25 Aug 2017 - Public domain

Reading IIIThe eye, exactly on time

Some storms organize around a point of calm. GOES-16 watched this one do it over the Gulf in 2017 - public film, kept whole, marked here as the historical record it is. The office, the issue and every figure around it remain fictional.

EYE 19 NM - SAMPLE SST 30.1 C - SAMPLE

The twelve-hundred chart

Sample chart - fictional data - drawn nightly
Isobars, 4 mb - sample Cold front - sample Warm front - sample H / L - sample centers

From the advisory log

All advisories below are fictional samples
2117 UTC
Sample
SampleCONVECTIVE OUTLOOK - FICTIONAL. The Office expects rotating updrafts along the dryline by mid-afternoon. Residents of the southern plains are advised to keep one eye on the western sky and both ears on the wireless. This is a sample advisory for a fictional office._
2214 UTC
Sample
SampleMESOSCALE DISCUSSION - FICTIONAL. Visible satellite film shows the first towers going up west of the 100th meridian, white as chalk on a slate sea. Sample figures: surface wind SW 25 kt, mixed-layer CAPE 2800 J/kg._
0022 UTC
Sample
SampleSTORM REPORT - FICTIONAL. Plate III of this issue was drawn from that hour: a tornadic supercell over West Texas, seen from GOES-East. The film is public domain; the report is a sample; the storm was real._

Colophon

SYNOPTIC is a fictional severe-weather office and a sample website template. Every reading, advisory, coordinate and forecast on this page is sample content; simulated figures are marked where they appear. The satellite film is real, historical, and in the public domain - captured by NOAA's GOES series and processed by CSU/CIRA and NOAA; one sequence by NOAA's GOES-16.

Set in Fraunces and Space Mono.

Film sources - public domain