Blob Routine RIP!

At the Pacific Weather Centre in the late 80's, the Satellite Meteorologist briefed the oncoming shift with - among other fields - a 48-hour Relative Humidity animation. Model resolution in the 80's was coarse, and a 5-second movie of low-resolution amorphous green blobs shape-shifting across the Pacific was not enlightening beyond "Gee there's some moisture out there!" Well, it is the Pacific Ocean after all! The RH animation was soon known as the Blob-routine! and no one could pronounce it without chuckling. Thankfully, that part of the briefing was binned.



Today, when weathercasters show precipitation animations I can't help but think Blob-routine! (chuckle). So, how to make this better?

Animations of precipitation over time are very hard for a lay audience to comprehend, never mind in the 8 seconds-maximum allotted time for a news graphic. Why not show the total precipitation forecast over a period of interest? e.g. 12, 24 or 48 hours.






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