Hi Jeff and List,

I live in Erie County New York the sea of which is Buffalo.  Now we can get 
weather conditions that vary so widely within a few miles.  For example, we 
have something called Lake Effect Snow Bursts or Lake Effect Snow Squalls. 
These squalls occur when cold winds blow across the open and warmer waters 
of the lake.  Depending upon the exact direction of the wind, these squalls 
can materialize right over the city, they can materialize a few miles south 
of the city or a few miles north of the city.  Or they can move 20, 30 or 40 
miles north or south of the city and oscillate back and forth.  They can 
vary in intensity from light flurries to heavy pile-ups--more than 2 inches 
an hour.  This is why in many cases, it would make sense to use cities 
and/or towns as a warning location rather than just counties.

For computers, I personally like the Weather Pulse program because it allows 
you to pick weather notification areas by zipcode.  This does work quite 
well because zipcode areas in my location are quite small in land area.  So 
for example, my zipcode is 14225.  During one of these lake effect events, I 
might see that my conditions are relatively placid, but if I change the 
zipcode field to say 14140, I will see that a heavy squall is occurring.

73's and take care for now.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Kenyon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:51 PM
Subject: Re: Weather Alerting


Hi Steve, that's true, but you'd have to issue a lot of warnings for many
separate cities when things are really hectic already.  Counties with a
lot of people like Wayne County, where I am are really spread out.  In the
past when they've given warnings they mention the city the storm started
in and mention where it is going.  I guess they could give multiple
warnings at once, but they have usually been one right after another.





On Wed, 17 Jan 2007, Steve wrote:

> I think the city warnings make more sense.  Some states have huge 
> counties, such
> as Arizona.  And, I think more people know where major cities are than 
> other
> counties.  I'm sure more people would know my location as Lansing than 
> they
> would if I said Ingham County.
>
> Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.
>
> Steve, K8SP
>