WEATHER FOR DAILY AND WEEKLY PAPERS
The Skywatch Weather Center can provide
graphics and text for traditional newsprint publications, whether you publish
daily or weekly. Our staff of meteorologists and graphic artists can design
layouts that you would want to see in your publication. This page shows
the type of elements we might include in a daily newspaper. You can look
at JPG examples of actual daily and weekly layouts, by clicking
here.
National Weather
The Skywatch Weather Center provides
daily maps of forecast high temperatures, forecast low temperatures, and
actual weather. These maps are updated twice a day, so that you get the
most recent information whether you go to press in the morning or evening.
One of these maps will be the center of attention on your weather page.
A verbal description of the weather affecting the nation usually accompanies
the map, and describes the dynamic weather patterns across the country.
Local Forecast Products
Much of the information that shows
up on a weather page is local or regional information. The most important
feature is a
5 Day Forecast or 7 Day Forecast, which
gives weather conditions and high and low temperatures for the readership
area of the newspaper. A Pittsburgh newspaper reader will expect to see
a local weather forecast for Pittsburgh and vicinity, with regional information
from the tri-state area (Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio).
Daily newspapers typically run a
5
Day Forecast, which is updated each day that the paper is printed.
A weekly publication, on the other hand, usually presents a
7 Day
Forecast, which is the only information available until the next
issue is published, after a week. Most readers realize that the first few
days of these multiday forecasts are the most accurate, as forecast information
becomes less reliable the further you go into the future.
Regional Outlook
While the U.S. map has tremendous eye
appeal, it cannot provide you with an accurate forecast for any specific
location. The data smoothing necessary to produce an esthetically pleasing
map of the continental United States does not allow for enough detail in
any specific area. The Regional Outlook map provides the
detail you want for specific cities in your region. A verbal description
of the weather gives a thumbnail sketch of what weather to expect over
the next 12 to 24 hours. Browse through the example
weather pages to see additional methods of displaying regional forecasts.
National Cities
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Business travellers want detail on the weather
for specific travel destinations. They can get this from the AROUND
THE NATION listing of cities. This product tabulates weather conditions
and high and low forecast temperatures, "today" and "tomorrow", for up
to 160 major U.S. cities. Usually, this detailed list is used when 1/2
page or more is devoted to the weather page. It can take up considerable
space, even when rendered in a small font. Skywatch Weather page layouts
will match up column lengths and the number of cities to meet your needs.
You get to choose which cities appear in your paper.
Many people in the reading area of a newspaper
are planning trips on any given day, so the national city list gives them
an idea of the current weather and a forecast for the cities they expect
to visit. Even if their specific destination is not listed, some major
city within 50 to 100 miles will be included, providing an indication of
the weather that can be expected.
An alternative presentation of available data
includes actual high and low temperatures and the precipitation amount
for "yesterday", along with a forecast of sky conditions, high and low
temperatures for the current day.
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Local Site Statistics
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The Almanac gives all
sorts of local weather and climatological data for a specific locale. The
weather junkie who thrives on statistics gets recharged on the information
tabulated here. Included are a summary of the temperatures for the preceding
day, such as high, low and mean temperatures, the normal for the day. During
winter, we'll report a wind chill temperature and the heating degree-days.
Summertime that changes to "feel-like" temperatures and cooling degree-days.
Another section reports the amounts of precipitation for the day, month
and year, along with a comparison with normal conditions. Sunshine amounts,
sunrise and sunset times, moonrise and moonset times are all available.
If your local is affected by high winds, the maximum sustained winds and
peak wind gusts can be a regular feature of the complete Almanac
listings.
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The Phases of the Moon
commonly appear in the Almanac portion of the weather page. The normal
method of listing the next four phases, along with the date on which they
occur, means that the pictures rotate on a biweekly basis throughout the
year.
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Regional Highs and Lows cover
cities and towns of interest in the states surrounding your city. These
temperatures are the actual highs and lows for the previous day, as recorded
at National Weather Service reporting locations. The list of cities is
more extensive than is available on the National Cities list
for the states in the region. The cities shown on the Regional Outlook
map also show up on this list, so that yesterday's actual temperatures
at a specific city from the list can be compared with today's forecast
high and low temperatures on the map.
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Marine Forecasts give
a forecast of wind and weather affecting stretches of the coast. Wind speeds
in these forecasts are given in knots rather than miles per hour, because
nautical enthusiasts are most likely to read and use this information.
The height of waves (or "seas") are noted in feet. Most mariners are aware
of how combinations of wind direction and strength will affect wave action,
and use these forecasts to avoid conditions beyond the capabilities of
the boat (and its captain).
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Tide Tables are a natural
adjunct to the marine forecast, for newspapers located in coastal cities.
Swimming, fishing, surfing, sailing and other water activities are affected
by tides. These tide tables are always created specifically for the newspaper's
area of interest. Daily papers typically carry "today and "tomorrow" data,
while weekly papers cover the full week.
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Other Features
Additional products are available
to display information such as Air Pollution indices, Pollen
or Allergen counts, summertime Tanning Index, Telephone
Access Lines for local weather information, the National and State
high and low Temperature Extremes, hourly temperatures and
relative humidity for "yesterday" in tables or graph format, and World
Temperatures at cities around the world.
Color and Black & White examples
are accessible from this webpage. As these examples are rendered in JPG
format, for rapid downloading by your browser, these graphics do not display
as well as the actual products.
Weather
Page Examples
Skywatch Weather Center can develop
a comprehensive weather package to meet your needs. Contact us for more
information, and to arrange for the download of production quality examples.
Call us at
1-800-SKYWATCH (1-800-759-9282).
Copyright © 2001, Air Science Consultants, Inc.
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