15 years since first Stratosphere Temperature Watch

[chionomaniac]

Hi all

I know I don’t post often now but I’ve just realised that this winter is the 15th anniversary of the first Strat thread. How time flies!

 

I remember clearly that first year and a few  years after. I was convinced that the stratosphere played an important role in influencing tropospheric impacts and thought I would monitor this throughout the winter season. Well, I couldn’t have chosen a better season. That winter, we saw a record breaking split SSW of the Strat that led to almost immediate tropospheric impacts early Feb in the form of a severe easterly cold outbreak. 
Despite this being obvious to me, there were a lot of sceptics that still needed to be convinced. 
Yep, I didn’t get everything right back then as I was still learning like the rest of us, but now when I look back I see that we on this forum were at the forefront of leading the way - maybe not ahead of the scientists - but more often than not ahead of the meteorologists who had never been taught the relationship between the Strat and trop in a way that we take for granted now!

I guess I am proud of the work we undertook on this forum and we led the way. 
 

I don’t often post or tweet nowadays- I consider that the groundbreaking work was done back then and that there is little to add. However, I am still keeping a keen eye on things and understand a little bit more about the Strat trop interactions than I ever did. 
 

And I am definitely keeping an eye on the first third of Feb for something interesting to develop- initially trop based but then affecting the strat. A few things will need to fall into place first, but keep an eye out. 
 

Thanks to all those initial Strat believers

Ed

[Don]

2 minutes ago, chionomaniac said:

Hi all

I know I don’t post often now but I’ve just realised that this winter is the 15th anniversary of the first Strat thread. How time flies!

 

I remember clearly that first year and a few  years after. I was convinced that the stratosphere played an important role in influencing tropospheric impacts and thought I would monitor this throughout the winter season. Well, I couldn’t have chosen a better season. That winter, we saw a record breaking split SSW of the Strat that led to almost immediate tropospheric impacts early Feb in the form of a severe easterly cold outbreak. 
Despite this being obvious to me, there were a lot of sceptics that still needed to be convinced. 
Yep, I didn’t get everything right back then as I was still learning like the rest of us, but now when I look back I see that we on this forum were at the forefront of leading the way - maybe not ahead of the scientists - but more often than not ahead of the meteorologists who had never been taught the relationship between the Strat and trop in a way that we take for granted now!

I guess I am proud of the work we undertook on this forum and we led the way. 
 

I don’t often post or tweet nowadays- I consider that the groundbreaking work was done back then and that there is little to add. However, I am still keeping a keen eye on things and understand a little bit more about the Strat trop interactions than I ever did. 
 

And I am definitely keeping an eye on the first third of Feb for something interesting to develop- initially trop based but then affecting the strat. A few things will need to fall into place first, but keep an eye out. 
 

Thanks to all those initial Strat believers

Ed

Great to hear from you Ed!

[chionomaniac]

11 minutes ago, Don said:

Great to hear from you Ed!

Thanks. I’ve always been in the background. I think we should note that @Paul gave me a platform to express my thoughts. And as much as I have not always seen eye to eye with @Tamara I certainly appreciate that she was invaluable with her thoughts in that first ever thread and continues to be on the forum. 

[Don]

20 minutes ago, chionomaniac said:

Thanks. I’ve always been in the background. I think we should note that @Paul gave me a platform to express my thoughts. And as much as I have not always seen eye to eye with @Tamara I certainly appreciate that she was invaluable with her thoughts in that first ever thread and continues to be on the forum. 

Yes indeed wrt @Tamara @Paul! 

It would be great to hear some of your thoughts moving forward, ref to developments in the strat during February.  

[chionomaniac]

2 minutes ago, Don said:

Yes indeed wrt @Tamara @Paul! 

It would be great to hear some of your thoughts moving forward, ref to developments in the strat during February.  

Haha. They tend to be more private nowadays. But clues are in the first post. 

[lorenzo]

46 minutes ago, chionomaniac said:

Hi all

I know I don’t post often now but I’ve just realised that this winter is the 15th anniversary of the first Strat thread. How time flies!

 

I remember clearly that first year and a few  years after. I was convinced that the stratosphere played an important role in influencing tropospheric impacts and thought I would monitor this throughout the winter season. Well, I couldn’t have chosen a better season. That winter, we saw a record breaking split SSW of the Strat that led to almost immediate tropospheric impacts early Feb in the form of a severe easterly cold outbreak. 
Despite this being obvious to me, there were a lot of sceptics that still needed to be convinced. 
Yep, I didn’t get everything right back then as I was still learning like the rest of us, but now when I look back I see that we on this forum were at the forefront of leading the way - maybe not ahead of the scientists - but more often than not ahead of the meteorologists who had never been taught the relationship between the Strat and trop in a way that we take for granted now!

I guess I am proud of the work we undertook on this forum and we led the way. 
 

I don’t often post or tweet nowadays- I consider that the groundbreaking work was done back then and that there is little to add. However, I am still keeping a keen eye on things and understand a little bit more about the Strat trop interactions than I ever did. 
 

And I am definitely keeping an eye on the first third of Feb for something interesting to develop- initially trop based but then affecting the strat. A few things will need to fall into place first, but keep an eye out. 
 

Thanks to all those initial Strat believers

Ed

Gonna keep this short - the word you have not written above, but applies wholly to what you helped everyone see is - Visionary.

It's an amazing legacy and all over the frontier of predictabilty.

As you say job done sir !

[Don]

6 minutes ago, chionomaniac said:

Haha. They tend to be more private nowadays. But clues are in the first post. 

Noted!