From the satellite loop you should have been able to see the big storm brewing
over the Pacific Ocean. Let's look at some more information about this
weather system. Here are isobars over the images. Notice how the lines
aren't connected over the ocean. This is because the computer drew
these isobars from the pressure values in
the surface station weather observations.
Except for a few buoys, we don't have surface observations over
the oceans.
The lack of surface observations over the ocean is a significant forecast challenge on the west coast
of the United States. It should be obvious how important satellite images are for weather forecasters.
Below is a loop showing the images every 6 hours.
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