Weather forum - Thread title changes

pauld

Hi, I love the Weather forum, so many excellent, knowledgeable people who contribute so much to it.

As boards is used by so many people for many different reasons, chatting, information, education etc, it has and will continue to grow in importance as an historical record of Irish life.

With this in mind, I think the Weather forum loses some historical context and usefulness when the thread title names for a major weather events changes constantly as the weather event eases and passes.

As an historical tool, I would prefer if the Thread title was not altered from it's highest alert position. I realise that this wish is in total conflict with the here and now people using the site to gain information on what action to take etc due to the weather event, which is of course is so much more important

If is not possible to refrain from changing the thread name, would it be of some benefit after the event has passed that a mod updates the first post with Status Alerts and time and date they were changed. Or alternatively changing it back to its highest alert but prefixing it with EXPIRED WARNING,

The Storm Desmond event is the most recent one that has prompted me to write to you. it was a highest alert thread, now flicking through, its' thread title reads "Heavy rain.........

Just a suggestion and I know topic names has been a thorny issue for the Weather forum in the past.
Thanks

Paul

Dav

Why not just start new threads every time there's a new event? Seems illogical to keep changing a thread title when it's easier to start a new thread.

Spear

Dav wrote: »

Why not just start new threads every time there's a new event? Seems illogical to keep changing a thread title when it's easier to start a new thread.

I think you've misunderstood, it's changing the thread prefix e.g. red/orange/yellow alert. Each new event does get a new thread each time.

Lumi

pauld wrote: »

As an historical tool, I would prefer if the Thread title was not altered from it's highest alert position. I realise that this wish is in total conflict with the here and now people using the site to gain information on what action to take etc due to the weather event, which is of course is so much more important

If is not possible to refrain from changing the thread name, would it be of some benefit after the event has passed that a mod updates the first post with Status Alerts and time and date they were changed. Or alternatively changing it back to its highest alert but prefixing it with EXPIRED WARNING,

The Storm Desmond event is the most recent one that has prompted me to write to you. it was a highest alert thread, now flicking through, its' thread title reads "Heavy rain.........

Hi Paul, many thanks for the feedback.

As you pointed out our Alert levels can and do change throughout a weather event and our thread prefixes/titles reflect this in order to give the most up to date information as the event progresses, sometimes over a number of days.

At other times we use the prefixes to give advance warning of a red/orange/yellow event that (a) turns out not to be as severe as expected or (b) never materialises and the alerts are altered/removed as appropriate.

Generally, only active alerts receive a coloured warning prefix so that they stand out. The alert prefixes are preset so it is not not possible to alter the text and we have a limited number of characters available for thread titles so adding EXPIRED RED/ORANGE/YELLOW WARNING to the thread title may simply not be feasible in many instances.

In the case of the Storm Desmond event, Met Eireann had six different warnings in place. The highest alert level was reflected in the two event thread titles, the warnings were removed once the event had passed and the titles were changed to 'Storm Desmond - Heavy Rainfall 4/5 December 2015' and 'Storm Desmond - Strong Winds 4/5 December 2015'.
However, details of the various status alerts as the event progressed are preserved in the excellent thread contributions and updates. Also, the fact that it was a named storm flags it for posterity as a notable event.

Black Swan

Weather can be stormy, and rarely dead calm. If you don't like Weather, just wait a bit and something new will blow in, leaving you metaphorically sun baked, or soaked, or dodging hail, or slipping in snow. Akin to colliding fronts, Weather meteorologists issue thunder and lightning bolts against each others conflicting forecast models, sometimes "foruming" the perfect storm. When the atmosphere gets too charged, sending many of us running for shelter, Weather mods issue storm warnings and the like, reassuring our community that it will soon blow over, and we soon will return to moderate weather.

We can take our hats off thanks to Weather mods for moderate Weather, one of the most complex and sophisticated forums in Science category and boards. You rarely get thanks for what you do so grandly, so cheers to you and SINCERE THANKS for a grand job Lumi, DOCARCH, pistolpetes11, Redsunset, and Trogdor.