In December of 2018, the US Government initiated a shutdown of non-essential services. As part of this, I noticed that apps like mPING which are used for reporting weather conditions began to have broken links.
Non-essential Government employees such as the NOAA.gov webmasters threw a tantrum associated with being told that they were “non-essential”. As a result, even though the servers were humming along just fine, these workers blocked access to their content for the duration of the “shutdown” with a message politely explaining that they would be holding their non-essential information hostage until they were allowed to continue suckling at the teet of the State.
I was hoping to find a mirror for the info but couldn’t immediately. Now that the Government has resumed it’s non-essential operations (at great economic expense to innocent Software Engineers like myself), I was able to obtain a copy of the information which I will mirror below.
Enjoy!
PS: Another archive of this information exists here: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://mping.nssl.noaa.gov/types.php
What are all of those weather types that are listed in the mPING app? How do you tell the difference between freezing rain and freezing drizzle?
Test
- Sends a test report to confirm that NSSL received your report; you will see a small yellow X appear to show your report was received
Rain and/or Snow
- None
- No precipitation occurring; most useful shortly before precipitation begins and after it ends
- Drizzle
- Very small, numerous and uniformly distributed water drops that may appear to float while following air currents
- Freezing Drizzle
- Drizzle that falls in liquid form but freezes upon impact to form a coating of glaze ice
- Rain
- Liquid water drops falling that do not freeze upon impact
- Freezing Rain
- Rain that falls in liquid form but freezes upon impact to form a coating of glaze on exposed objects (this will occur well before any ice forms on the ground)
- Ice Pellets/Sleet
- Small translucent balls of ice cosisting of frozen raindrops (not to be confused with hail)
- Snow
- Frozen precipitation in the form of flakes of ice crystals
- Mixed Rain & Snow
- Usually has the consistency of slush; almost never results in any accumulation
- Mixed Rain & Ice Pellets
- Often occurs as wet ice pellets mixed with small raindrops; sometimes occurs as falling raindrops containing one or perhaps few small pieces or chunks of ice (not snow)
- Mixed ice Pellets & Snow
- Snow along with ice pellets; the snowflakes don’t have ice pellets at their core as with ice pellets mixed with rain
Hail (include size)
- A chunk of ice falling from the sky ranging from the size of a pea to a grapefruit; hail occurs exclusively in thunderstorms. Sleet is not tiny hail but is instead produced by a different process.
Wind Damage
- Severity 1 (Damage Trivial)
- Lawn furniture & trash cans displaced; small twigs broken off
- Severity 2 (Damage Mild)
- 1 inch tree limbs broken; shingles blown off
- Severity 3 (Damage Moderate)
- 3 inch tree limbs broken; power poles down
- Severity 4 (Damage Severe)
- Large trees uprooted or snapped; roofs blown off
- Severity 5 (Damage Extreme)
- Homes and buildings destroyed
Water Spout
- Not displayed but sent to the NWS
Tornado (on ground)
- Not displayed but sent to the NWS
Flood
- Severity 1 (Flood Minor)
- River/creek overflowing; cropland/yard/basement flooding
- Severity 2 (Flood Moderate)
- Street/road flooding; stranded vehicles
- Severity 3 (Flood Serious)
- Homes and buildings filled with water
- Severity 4 (Flood Severe)
- Homes, buildings and cars swept away
Mudslide/Landslide
- Most often areas of soil mud that becomes loose due to lots of rainfall and then slides down a hilside; sometimes an entire hillside will come loose in a layer and slide
Reduced Visibility
- Dense Fog
- Visibility reduction caused by very tiny condensed water droplets so small that they cannot be individually distinguished; essentially a cloud on the ground
- Blowing Dust/Sand
- Visibility reduction caused by strong winds lofting sand and dust, most often from dry and barren soil
