Skip to main content

A Vision for the National Weather Service Road Map for the Future (1999) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

I Where Are We Going?
Prologue: A Boston Christmas Carol, 2025
Pages 5-8

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 5...
... Part ~ Where Are We Going?
Read the entire page →
From page 7...
... Last minute Christmas shoppers drive slowly through the plowed streets. The text windows report broken stratocumulus clouds at 6,500 feet with scattered altocumulus clouds above, visibility 10 miles, winds 350° at 20 mph with gusts of 35 mph, temperature of 29°F, and sea-level pressure of 1002.5 mb and rising rapidly.
Read the entire page →
From page 8...
... Selecting the Impacts window opens a long list of the probable damages from a storm of this magnitude: all airports within 500 miles closed, no roads passable, extreme danger to life and property, 400 fatalities, and $100 million in property damage and other economic losses. After weighing each item on the long list, the rating on the EWIS scale is 7.2 and on the HWIS scale is 4.6, or "Catastrophic." The probability of the worst case is given as 18 percent, one of the highest probabilities ever forecast for a 5-day, worst-case scenario in the "Catastrophic" category of the HWIS.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • mayor asks
  • impacts scale
  • weather impacts
  • impacts window
  • heavy snow

  • human weather
  • window reports
  • economic weather
  • text window
  • snow precipitation

  • text windows
  • slow forward
  • drive slowly
  • fresh snow
  • team begin

  • extreme danger
  • broken stratocumulus
  • wintry scene
  • snow blankets
  • forward key

  • plowed streets
  • extremely heavy
  • forecast scenario
  • dense fog
  • economic losses

  • altocumulus clouds
  • fog disappears
  • weather option
  • move forward
  • remove snow


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.