Skip to main content

From Russia With Love

No, I'm not really in Russia, but just watching the weather there the past few days has been entertaining. Here are some key tips to make note of as the opening World Cup match approaches.

  1. Russia has a truckload of time zones thanks to its extensive length from west to east. This Timezone Map is particularly handy.
  2. The westernmost host city of Kaliningrad is in the Eastern European Time Zone (EET, UTC+2). This is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), so if a match starts in Russia at 4 p.m. EET, that would be 10 a.m. EDT.
  3. Not surprisingly, the first match features Russia debuting in Moscow, facing off against Saudi Arabia. Moscow time (MSK, UTC+3) is another hour ahead of EDT, so that first match which kicks off at 6 p.m. local time will occur on my TV at 11 a.m. EDT. Yay, I'll be at the office and I can monitor live weather conditions leading up to the match!
  4. The easternmost host city of Yekaterinburg is UTC+5, so another 2 hours ahead of EDT, so that 5 p.m. match between Egypt and Uruguay on June 15 will be on locally (again EDT here) at 8 a.m.
As a meteorologist who forecasts worldwide, I deal with time zone considerations every single day. Hopefully this will be helpful to the viewing audience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forecast Uncertainty and Actionable Intelligence

On Friday, March 16, 2018, I provided an updated forecast to a client stating that on Tuesday, March 20, there was a threat for 3" or more snow in northern parts of their area of concern, a threat for minor to moderate icing (thin glaze to as much as 0.10-0.20" possible) due to freezing rain in northwestern parts of their area, and a threat for 1" or more rainfall in southeastern parts of their area. All three of these concerns ended up happening in the areas I highlighted. At the time, looking five days out, there remained considerable uncertainty about which precipitation type would be most dominant. In addition, factor in the late March timing, meaning lighter snow rates would be slower to accumulate (if at all). The heavier snow rates, 1-2"/hr, would be sufficient. However the occurrence of such rates would be within localized bands, which are difficult to pinpoint where they would set up even 24 hours ahead of time, but nearly impossible five days ahead. From...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Thrill of Victory... and the Agony of Defeat

Weather forecasting sometimes feels like a competition to figure out what the atmosphere is going to do next. The thrill of victory comes not only when you nail a forecast, but also in the way that it helps the user make a decision that saves them time or money. The agony of defeat can be harsh, especially when your erroneous forecast is out there for everyone to see, and of course everyone will be sure to point out just how wrong you were.
Post a Comment
Read more

World Cup Weather

As the 2018 World Cup in Russia approaches, I thought it would be timely to blog about the weather pattern leading up to the opening match which will take place on June 14. My company, Earth Networks, provides an excellent viewing platform called Sferic Maps, which enables me to plot various weather data as well as plot the venues where the matches will be played. On today's weather map, high pressure is building in across western Russia as a cold front pushes southward into Georgia to Azerbaijan and northern Turkey. A low pressure will track over central Russia very near Yekaterinburg, the east-most venue, heading south into northern Kazakhstan. The air mass with the low pressure is rather cold, with sub-freezing temperatures anticipated Saturday morning. Brr!
Post a Comment
Read more