About
Rebel Weather is an experimental program in amateur meteorology focused on Dayton, OH. The current progress of Rebel Weather consists of ground condition images constructed from Google Maps and National Weather Service data available in the public domain. Approximately 130 weather stations across 35 states are used to interpolate measurements within the west-central Ohio region, giving an enhanced interpretation of weather conditions to complement forecasts given by professional meteorologists. The initial idea came about while trying to schedule marathon training runs when storms were forecasted during unpredictable summer days. Having been disappointed by the shortcomings of many near-term forecasts, I decided that as a research engineer I might be able to write codes that could give me a better picture of what to expect from the weather. Using some basic principles of heat and mass transfer, I found that I could more often than not provide myself with better forecasts from simple ground condition maps. Admittedly, so far these forecasts have been more qualitative than quantitative, but future development plans will address this issue by constructing deep neural network algorithms to develop a programatic understanding of the relationships between ground conditions and storm probability.